Riptide🌊

Here's the second part of For him!

"Cedric, we got this a month ago. We need to do something with it." Nami tells me. 

I sigh, leaning on the railing. “It’s not that simple.”

It’s really early. Neither of us could sleep, so we came to the top of the ship. The ship is in the ocean now, and we can see the sun coming over the edge of the water.

A month ago, we went to Siren’s Slope, where we got a box my parents left there for Nami and I. When we opened it, we found a dragon's egg. I want to keep it, but Nami doesn’t think it’s safe.

“We can’t have that thing here.” He says. 

I sigh again. “Well, what should we do with him?”

“Bring him back!” 

“What happened to, They’ll kill humans on sight.” I say, mimicking his voice.

“Well…” He frowns, realizing I have a point. “I don’t know, but this ship is made of wood. Dragons breathe fire. It'll destroy the ship!"

“Then we’ll just train it!”

He throws his hands up. “You can’t train a dragon, Cedric!”

“You probably can!” I protest. "And it might not breathe fire."

He sighs. “Where would we keep it?”

“I’ll keep it in my room.” I promise. 

He runs a hand through his hair. “Fine. But only because your parents left it.”

“Thank you thank you thank you.” I say, hugging him.

He smiles, and wraps his arms around me. “Just don’t get us killed.”

🌊

“Nami!” I yell. We’ve been waiting for about a month. “He’s hatching!” 

I can hear him walking towards my room, and telling the crew something. He opens the door as the shell cracks. He stands next to me, and we watch as the shell pieces fall to the table. 

The baby dragon is curled up in a little ball. He’s green with blue spikes on its back. 

He yawns, and lifts his head, wings spreading out. He is so cute.

“He’s not that big.” I tell Nami. 

He frowns. “It grows, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure what type he is.”

The dragon is struggling to stand, but after a second he does. He’s looking the other way, and hasn’t seen us yet.

“How is this thing supposed to protect us?” Nami asks, crossing his arms.

The dragon turns at his voice, his tongue hanging out. Nami’s eyes widen as he jumps off the table, and onto him, pushing him to the ground. He licks Nami’s face, standing on his chest.

“Bad dragon, off, off!” Nami shouts, trying to cover his face. “Get off of me!”

I try not to laugh as the dragon curls up on Nami’s chest, and falls asleep almost immediately.

“What was that?” Nami demands, sitting up. The dragon slides to his lap, still asleep. 

I smile, and pick up the dragon. “He likes you.”

“A little too much, don’t you think?” He says, getting up, and wiping his face.

I laugh, and put him on the table. “What should we name him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe-” He gets interrupted by a knock on the door.

I open it, and see Riley. He looks worried. 

“Yeah?” I say. 

He bites his lip. “Aggie and Franky are fighting. He found out.”

“Really?” Nami groaned. “I’m coming.”

Aggie and Franky have been in a really toxic relationship for years. Everyone knows she’s cheated on him, but no one has the heart to tell him.

“You’ll think of a name.” Nami tells me before he leaves.

🌊

Nami avoids the dragon the best he can. I ended up naming him Riptide, because he loves the water. Riptide always wants to go near Nami, but I try not to let him.

One night, however, he gets away.

🌊

I wake up to someone shrieking my name. It's Nami.

I run out of my room, and see others doing the same. It’s dark outside, and I’m not sure what time it is. 

“Nami?” I say, pushing open his door.

I stop short, taking in the sight.

Everything in the room is drenched with water, including Nami. He’s trying to get away from Riptide, who’s chasing his feet. Splashes of water keep hitting Nami, soaking him even more.

“Riptide.” I call. He stops.

Nami turns to me, breathing hard. “I’m going to your room. Please do something with your dragon.”

He walks past me, a trail of water following him. 

“Okay…” I say, going to Riptide. He’s a bit bigger now, but I can still hold him. “Why’d you do that? You know he doesn’t like you.”

He curls up in my arms, and falls asleep. I sigh, and put him on the bed. Why did he come in here? I look around, and when I see it, I sigh.

“Nami?” I say, opening the door to my room. My eyes widen when I see he’s getting dressed. 

“Sorry!” I squeak, slapping a hand over my eyes, and closing the door.

A minute later, he opens the door, blushing. He’s wearing my clothes, which are a bit big on him.

“You okay?” I ask him.

He sighs, and nods. “Yeah. Why was he in my room?”

“Your room is closest to the water. He...really likes water.”

“We’re on a ship. Everything is close to the water.” He points out, drying his hair with a towel.

“You also smell like the ocean.”

“Is he in there now?” He asks. I nod. He sighs. “I’m sleeping in here.”

“With me?” I say in surprise. That’s new.

He smirks. “Are you planning on sleeping somewhere else?”

“But-I-you-with me-what?”

He laughs. “C’mon, I’m tired.”

It’s been years since we shared a bed. I lay beside him, and he wraps his arms around me.

🌊

We both wake up to a knock on the door. Nami buries his face in a pillow, not being a morning person. I get up and open it.

Riley’s standing there. He raises an eyebrow at the sight of Nami, and I know there will be rumors. He looks nervous.

“So, Franky’s still upset about the break up, and he wasn’t paying attention, and now we’re in Witches Realm.” He says.

Nami lets out a stream of curses into the pillow before sitting up. “Tell Franky to go below deck, and take a break. We’ll be there soon.”

Riley leaves as Nami stands. We change quickly, not looking at each other. When we go out, most of the crew is on the deck too. Nami curses again. 

The ship is on the ocean again, moving slowly. A group of witches stand at the head of the ship. They’re wearing buttoned up black dresses, and a pointy hat, their broomsticks resting on the ground. Of all the creatures we’ve seen, Witches are some of the only ones we haven’t been able to agree with. But I know one of them, due to a reoccurring kidnapping situation.

“Syd, what are you doing?” I ask one of them, walking over. No one seems surprised I know her, and they move out of the way. I can see Riptide sitting back, watching everyone, still until he sees me. He bounds over, jumping into my arms. 

“Calm down.” I tell him. I look back at Sydney, who seems surprised.

“Why do you have a dragon? No- how?” She says, crossing her arms.

Riptide jumps out of my arms, and goes behind me. I can hear Nami telling him to get away. “My parents left him for me. What are you doing?”

“We’re supposed to…” She pulls out a sheet of parchment from her pocket, and scans it before putting it back. “Kidnap the captain of the ship.”

I sigh. “Again?”

“Yeah, well, Glinda still has a crush on you.” She says. 

Glinda is one of the head witches. She’s terrible, though, and whenever we cross here, she insists on having me kidnapped. It’s honestly kind of tiring.

Nami is suddenly beside me. “Tell Glinda he’s taken. He’s not going anywhere.”

“Has that ever worked?” She snaps. 

The other witches are getting impatient. One whispers something to her, and Sydney sighs. “Look, this can go either way, but he’s coming with us.”

“Nami-” I start, but he interrupts me.

“No.” 

Sydney shrugs. “Fine, the hard way, then.”

She pulls out her wand, and shoots a streak of fire at Nami. His eyes widen, but it’s extinguished before it reaches him.

Riptide is standing in front of Nami, snarling at the witches. He flicks his tail, causing a wave of water to splash over the witches. They try to shoot more spells, but Riptide puts them all out.

“Did he just save me?” Nami asks in wonder as the witches take off.

I smile, and nod. “Can’t hate him now, can you?”

He grumbles something, and goes to the wheel, steering us into the air. Riptide inches over to stand by him. Nami says nothing as he curls around his foot. I can almost see a smile on his face.

🌊

Now, Nami tolerates Riptide. He still sleeps in my room, but he lets Riptide follow him around without saying anything.

After some research, we found out that Riptide is some kind of water dragon. Dragon’s are very secretive, so we don’t know much about them.

The rest of the crew slowly start trusting Riptide, and after a while, everyone loves him. Nami won’t admit it, but I know he does. How do I know?

One day, I went to go find him. His door was cracked open, and he was talking to someone. I was going to go, but I heard Riptide in there, too. Was he talking to the dragon? I move beside the door to listen.

“-says no? I mean, what if he thinks twenty years old is too young?” He said. I could see him sitting on the bed, fiddling with a box. Riptide, who was almost big as a dolphin, was lying on the ground beside the bed, looking up at him.

“But if I don’t, then what happens? What if I can never ask him?” He sighed, tossing the box beside him. I nearly gasped as it opened. There was a beautiful ring in the box, with a green jewel in the center. I covered my mouth, surprised.

“I’ll try to ask him tomorrow.” He said, snapping it shut. “I just hope he says yes.”

He yawned, and laid down. After a second he sighed.

 “You can come up here.” He said to Riptide. He scooted over as Riptide climbed up. I smiled as he let Riptide curl to his side.

As I walked away, I could barely contain my excitement. Is he really going to ask me to marry him? I can’t believe it.

🌊

A while later, we get a message from Queen Emerald, inviting us there for a celebration. It doesn’t say what it’s for, but we decide to go anyway. It’s in a week, which is about how long it will take to get there. 

I’m sitting on the deck with Nami and Riptide as the moon rises. He hasn’t proposed, and I haven’t said anything. 

After a while, I realize they’re both asleep. I smile, and look out at the water at the moon’s reflection. I can’t wait until he proposes.

🌊