Chapter 53

The next day we were donning our own gear. I received given one of the new suits. As I pulled it up over me, it seemed to lose. “I thought wet suits were supposed to be tight. Like a second skin! How am I going to swim like this?” I cried out.

Jasper came up to me. “This is why that salesman kept asking for your size. The spirits came up with a solution. This only works with these new suits because we can just tell everyone we designed as smart nano lining. See this button on your neck.” He pointed just in front of my right ear. “Press it once.”

I reached up and pressed it. The suit got smaller, like it was spandex, but not. It formed to my body and then stopped. “How?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but it does. They told me if the suit gets separated from the others by a mile or more, it will fall apart in a few weeks. As long as we have it here on this boat, it will last forever.”

“What do you tell your brother?”

“The same thing I just told you. Your men at the Oasis designed these prototypes. You are letting us use them and they will fall apart in a few weeks if separated from each other by more than a mile. With what sci-fi inventions are out on the Web, he’ll believe me. People will be amazed when they wear them. I think the other suits might not get much use. Those suits are made to fit us now, but the spirits told me they will change them into different sizes before they leave.”

“Or we can have them make more of these newer ones, and you have your brother order more of newer regulators and helmets.” I told him.

“It may take a while before we have enough money to do that, but Yeah, I’ll take you up on your offer.”

“No, I mean you tell him to order the equipment and pay for it with the card I gave you. Keep the other suits stored away just in case, since we already paid for them.” I said. His eyes told me everything I needed to know. He nodded and went to help Jesse, who had a different problem.

As we were going into the water for the first time, to just float a few feet under. I sent the two bound out to patrol the surrounding waters. The Spirits that were supposed to be here had suits, and the rest were in swim shorts and helping us novices. Along with Regan and Charlie. Only Gor stayed onboard in his human form from. If some boat was to pass by close enough to see, they would think that a bunch of rich gay bears were on vacation. Which I guess was what we were. Except for me, of course, I was still the odd one out.

Since the first time I grew and this last time with the two bounds, I’ve been trying to grow but nada. I thought maybe if I could do it when we had fun with them again, it would be alright. I did not have to be as big and buff as everyone else, at least not all the time. Give me that much and I would be happy.

‘Feeling down?’ Jesse asked.

‘Not really just thinking about the two times I grew. Can I do it again on command?’ I told him.

‘Just don’t overdo it. That might be the reason you can’t do it when you want. You get so large it takes everything you have and you fall unconscious.’

*****

“This is an area with potential. Few divers come here because it’s so far out. Even I don’t know what to expect down there. Now that you’ve done all your prep, this dive will make you a certified diver,” Regan told us all.

“How deep are we going again?” Karl asked.

“18 meters, or 60 feet—it was in the paperwork,” James reminded us.

“Just grab one line we sent down and follow it to the marker at the 18-meter mark. We’ll all go in groups of four to explore anything interesting. Check your air and come back up before you reach fifty percent,” Regan reminded us.

The first four stepped off the platform and started their journey down to the marker.

I stepped onto the platform, waiting for Jesse, while Karl and James were also ready and waiting. Jesse handed me a speargun. “Can’t forget one of these,” he said as I grabbed it.

We were the second group of four. “Go,” Regan said, and we all stepped off. I marveled at the clarity of the water here. Jesse and I followed one line down, while Karl and James used the other. It felt like we were entering another world as we descended lower and lower. Fish of all kinds swam around us. I made sure not to touch any because some had poisonous barbs, and I didn’t know which ones they were. Granted, I should have paid more attention when Charlie held that class.

When we found the marker, Cetus, Cobra, and Roan met us. Roan was the only one not in a suit; he just floated bare, showing off his body. None of them took breaths, since they were all spirits and didn’t need air_. ‘Master, can we take these off now?’_ Cetus asked me.

‘Why? If you do, the equipment might get lost down here,’ I told them.

‘We want to do as Roan does. Besides, if we need to change forms, the suits will discard themselves, anyway. We can send the suits to our realm and don them before surfacing,’ Cetus said.

‘Alright, as long as everything is back in the storage room after we’re done,’ I said. I turned to see where Karl and James were. Ogre and Cero held the underwater scooters; since I gotten bored using them a few days back, Karl wanted to try them with James.

We headed over to some outcroppings as the other four jetted off away from us. As we got closer, there was an opening in the outcropping—an underwater cave of sorts. It didn’t look like it went too deep. I swam to the entrance, and before Jesse could stop me, I entered, with Cetus right behind me. We dropped about ten feet or less, and I turned on my light. The ceiling glowed in all different colors as the light hit it. “You came!” I heard.

‘Is that you, Cetus?’ I asked.

‘Is what me, Master?’ Cetus asked, uncertain of what I meant.

‘Did you say,’ ‘You came to me?’

‘No, Master, I did not. Are you certain you heard it?’ Cetus asked. Jesse and Cobra were further behind us because the walls weren’t very wide.

‘It may have been my imagination.’

‘You came! I’ve been calling you, and you heard us.’ I saw a small orb moving in and out of the ceiling. A yellow glow pulsed in sync with the words spoken at its center.

‘What are you? I thought what you said was just my imagination, until I turned on my light,’ I told it.

‘I was cast out from my form many thousands of years ago. Seeking refuge, I found your world. They seek me everywhere. You are in danger.’

This orb made no sense, unless it was an unbound, but unbound are only in the spirit realm, other than the ones I called here. ‘Are you an unbound?’

‘I was, but then a being placed me in a creature. I could not fulfill his commands, so he tore me out and cast me away_. The being thought that was the end of me. For many centuries I flowed with the tides of the stars, alone, found your world and now they came for me once again. I don’t know why, but they hunt me,_’ the orb said.

‘Is the being behind me one of those such beings?’ I asked.

‘No, it is not. But they come for you as well. Please take me with you, but know that they are also looking for you.’ The glow faded, and the sphere dropped from the ceiling, falling to the floor of the cave. I caught it before touching the sand and placed it in the pouch I had for collecting items.

Since I could see light further ahead, I swam deeper into the cave and came out on the other side of the outcropping. Cetus was out next and asked, ‘Why did you stop for so long, Master?’

‘I didn’t stop very long, did I?’ I looked at the oxygen gauge; it was half used. We had just gotten here—how could I have used so much air?

Jesse and Cobra came through next, and I saw Roan above me, looking as if he was nervous or something. Cetus grabbed me as Roan came down and did the same. Cobra had Jesse, and we swam up and back to the rope, which wasn’t far away.

‘Why are we swimming so fast? I have half of my air supply,’ I asked.

‘Take Master up as fast as you can,’ Cetus told Cobra and Jesse.

‘What’s the matter?’ I said as I turned to look behind me. Jesse blocked my view with his body. I felt Cobra pushing me up from my finned feet as Jesse hauled me up by my arms. I kept my eyes looking back to where we had come from and glimpsed Roan and Cetus attacking something much bigger than them both. Cetus changed into a huge shark, but was still much smaller than whatever was attacking them. The next thing I knew, they flung me onto the platform.

“What was that thing? Ursus and Stone, form into your omega forms and get down there now. Who’s still down there?” I asked no one in particular I just needed to know.

More spirits appeared on the deck, at least two of each. One of each group formed their omegas and dived headfirst into the water. The rest changed into sharks as they jumped in behind the omegas.

“Save the others still down there!” I shouted as they grabbed me, along with Jesse and Cobra.

We were back in the cave, Jesse and my personal one. “What just happened?” I looked at Jesse, and he was holding Cobra, who only had his upper body intact. The two bound merged and entered Cobra’s form.

‘They tore him from our plane of existence. We can help repair him. We thought it best to get you as far away from that thing so we came here.’

Four more sets of spirits appeared. They all looked shocked at the sight of Cobra. Two circles of spirits surrounded us now, one set looking outward, and a small inner circle focused on me.

“The others with you are safe. As soon as you came back here, the attacker lost its will. We are watching it for now. Even with the omegas help, we are unable to destroy it. It was after you, Jesse, or something you took with you. We are not sure yet,” another Cobra told me and Jesse.

“What was that thing? Something that big could not have gone unnoticed by both you and my bound,” I asked, wanting an explanation. No answer came.

*****

Cobra was whole again, and the bound removed themselves from his body. He immediately turned into his spirit form and faded away. ‘He is very weak but will recover,’ the two joined bound spoke to me_. ‘We need to separate without them seeing.’_

‘Them meaning the spirits. Head into the study,’

‘Thank you, Master,’ was their reply as they left.

When they came back, they did so one at a time so the spirits would not notice. “Can you go back and bring the others here?” I asked the two bound.

‘Yes, but we can only take two at a time. Sorry, Master, but repairing the spirit Cobra, has taken much from us.’

‘No need to apologize. I should thank you for what you did for me. Please bring back Karl and James, and then, if you still can, bring back Gray and Detrick. If the boat is in good shape, let the rest bring it back to the harbor.’ The two nodded and were gone.

*****

It had been two days, and there were still no answers about what had happened or why. The spirits remained tight-lipped, as did the Bound. Jesse and I were constantly surrounded by sixteen spirits since the attack. It got to me so much that I had half of them shift into their human forms just so I wouldn’t lose my sanity. Even though I knew they were duplicates of the originals, it still bothered me.

Most of my time was spent with Jesse in my study. The spirits would seal us in to add another layer of protection, since I wouldn’t allow them to enter the room with us. The only exception was Cobra, because he has not yet recovered fully, and I permitted him to stay only after he promised not to interfere with the Bound or with anything Jesse and I discussed or did. His sole purpose was to raise the alarm if someone tried to take me.

‘We Bound are staying close to you. All have left their men and are watching for enemies,’ Rin said.

“Did you or your mate see or sense the thing that attacked us?” I asked.

‘No. We only realized something was wrong after you were forced up from the depths. That’s when we knew you were in danger. We were patrolling the perimeter as you instructed and were too far out. By the time we reached you, our only thought was to get you and your mate to safety,’ Lassie explained.

“So, you do not know what this thing was?”

‘No, Master, none,’ Rin replied.

I pulled out the orb I had found and showed it to Jesse and the two Bound, keeping it hidden from Cobra. Jesse heard everything the Bound said through me. They found a way to talk to me without slowing down time. I asked them to do so, What they did was not to speed up my brain function this time. I could relay their thoughts to him naturally now.

“Do either of you know what this is?” I asked, rolling the orb around in my fingers so they could see it from every angle.

‘It looks like an Unbound’s shell. How did you gain it, Master?’ Rin asked.

“So, it’s from one of your kind?” I stated rather than asked.

‘When a Bound spirit is placed inside an animal, the shell breaks and becomes incorporeal, merging with the ether. Yours appears intact, but the spirit is gone. I’ve never seen an intact shell without an Unbound inside,’ Lassie explained.

“Look closer,” I urged, focusing on the orb. Wake up and tell me if these two are your kind.

The orb glowed faintly yellow, and both of the Bound’s ears shot up.

‘When did the spirits bring another Unbound to you, Master?’

Jesse’s eyes widened as he looked at the orb. ‘I thought you only allowed two Unbound to come and permitted the cast-out ones to become their offspring?’

‘This is what I found in that little underwater cave—or grotto. At first, I heard it speak. It said, ‘You came.’ I asked Cetus if it was him, but he didn’t know what I was talking about. I told him it must have been my imagination. But then I heard it again and saw this orb emerge from the ceiling of the cave, bobbing in and out like it was coming from a hollow.’

_ _

‘It said it had been calling me, asking me to come. It warned me I was in danger and that ‘they’ were looking for it—and me. I told you most of what it said, but some things didn’t quite make sense.’

‘It is very weak. We have two options,’ Lassie explained. ‘The first is to nurse it back to health, though that will take some time. If we gather some of our offspring—the ones that were cast away—it will shorten the process. The second option is for Rin and me to mate. I would carry it inside me, and Rin would send his energy into me to begin the process. The offspring would not be ours, and it’s uncertain if it would be bound to you, Master.’

“We can’t risk an Unbound with total free will on the planet,” Jesse said. “For all we know, it could be the thing that attacked us.”

“Make it healthy enough to communicate with us. It might know what that thing was and why it’s after me,” I instructed the Bound.

Rin took the orb and swallowed it. ‘I cannot make it an offspring; that must be her. I will hold it inside me until we gather the ones we need, then expel it. We will return when it can tell you more, Master.’ With that, both Bound vanished.

With this matter set aside, I summoned the men who had stayed with the boat. I hadn’t spoken to them since the attack, and perhaps one of them had some useful information.

Later that day, Regan, Jasper, and Charlie came to see me. They stood before my desk as I began.

“I heard the boat fared well, with no damage. Is that correct?”

Jasper nodded. “Yes, it’s fine. We got all the equipment stored and didn’t lose a thing. My brother is arranging a berth for it. I also told him about the self-sizing suits and that they’re prototypes. He understands their value and knows you’re entrusting them to his care. He asked me to thank you again for everything you’ve done.”

“You’re here because no one seems to have gotten a good look at the thing that attacked us. It’s possible the spirits are withholding information. They must have seen more than they’ve told me—they were fighting it, after all.”

Charlie spoke up. “Sir, I was far enough away to avoid the attack, but I saw something—a murky figure. It wasn’t the water; the water was clear. It was the creature itself.”

“Can you describe it?” I asked.

“It was larger than the Omegas and about as long. Its body was murky and shifted like the flesh of a cuttlefish or a man-of-war. It was very fast. The only time it slowed was when it had to change direction. I saw its eyes—they glowed yellow-green. The light they emitted pierced through whatever was obscuring its body.”

“Did you see any of the fight?”

“Yes, but not much. Cobra was attacking it, but his blows only seemed to slow it down—they didn’t appear to do any actual damage. At least, not that I could see. The Omegas joined the fight later. They were doing more damage than Cobra. I was heading up behind my group when I saw Karl and James. They were too shocked by what they’d seen to move. We had to force them to ascend. I was so occupied helping them I didn’t see much more.”

“And you, Regan?” I asked. “Did you see anything?”

“No, sir. My group was too far away. We got the alert to surface immediately because there was danger in the water. I tied a line to each of us, inflated an emergency airbag, and we all surfaced right away. We swam to the boat from there.”

Jasper added, “We did about the same as Regan’s team, except without the airbag. We swam to the boat and climbed aboard at the bow. I don’t think anyone in my group saw anything. We surfaced as soon as we heard the warning.”

Regan asked, “This creature—it’s not natural, is it?”

“We don’t know enough about it yet,” I admitted. “But I’d say no, it’s not from Earth. I could be wrong. If any of you remember anything else about the creature, come to me immediately. And don’t talk to anyone about what happened down there. For now, stay in the Oasis. You’re dismissed.”

After they left, Jesse sighed. “Looks like nobody knows anything.”