Page 4 of Seas the Day
Wow, could everyone see how unfulfilled she really was?
“You’re a champion, Navira. Not just because of what you accomplished in the pool, but because of who you are. And champions aren’t meant to play it safe forever.” His eyes twinkled. “Go show them why everyone here admires you so much.”
“I won’t disappoint you, sir.”
“I know you won’t. You never have.”
Navira smiled and turned away, leaving the dean’s office with a renewed sense of confidence. Before long, the heavy glass doors of the administration building swung shut behind Navira, and the autumn air swept across her face. But she barely noticed. Her mind churned with impossible questions that felt suddenly urgent and real.
What does one pack for another planet?
The thought should have terrified her. Instead, it sent electric anticipation racing through her veins as she crossed the campus quad. Students clustered around, their laughter drifting across the manicured lawns dotted with maple trees blazing orange and gold. Normal college life. Normal Earth life. Everything she was about to leave behind.
Pink oceans. Purple forests. Two suns.
Gerri’s casual descriptions replayed in her mind as her feet found their familiar rhythm on the sidewalk leading off campus. The mile walk to her townhome had always been herdecompression time—a chance to transition from coach mode back to herself. Tonight, each step felt charged with possibility.
Elite swimmers who make Olympic athletes look like they’re treading water in molasses.
What did that even mean? Her imagination conjured images of impossibly graceful beings cutting through that pink water with supernatural speed and power. Would they be human? Would they have gills? Scales? Gerri mentioned a few extra teeth and fur, but that seemed odd for the water.
The questions multiplied as she turned onto her tree-lined street, where Victorian townhomes stood like colorful sentinels against the darkening sky. Her own home—a modest two-bedroom painted sage green—came into view ahead. Navira’s pace quickened and soon she stood at her front door, her hands shaking slightly as she fumbled with her keys, adrenaline making her fingers clumsy.
When she finally swung open her door to reveal her carefully curated space—neutral walls, comfortable furniture, framed photos of swimming victories that now seemed like artifacts from another lifetime—she let out a loud sigh.
“Okay, Amaryllis,” she said aloud, her voice echoing in the quiet entryway. “Time to figure out how to pack for this adventure.”
She bounded up the stairs two at a time, energy crackling through her system like lightning in her bloodstream. Once in her bedroom, she yanked open the closet and dragged out her largest suitcase—the one she’d used for international travel back when the world felt infinite and her life was actually exciting. The familiar weight of it in her hands sent memories flooding back. Airport gates. Hotel rooms in foreign cities. The electric atmosphere of competition venues.
She hefted the suitcase onto her bed, then grabbed a second one from the back of the closet. If she was doing this—reallydoing this—she wasn’t going unprepared. But what kind of climate awaited her on Nova Aurora? Gerri had mentioned two suns, but did that mean constant heat? Did the planet have seasons? Weather patterns?
“Focus on what you know,” she muttered, pulling armfuls of swimsuits from her dresser.
Competition suits, training suits, bikinis for outdoor swimming. If she was coaching elite swimmers, she’d need options. Her hands moved with efficiency, folding and arranging, but her mind raced ahead.
What if the water composition was different? What if their swimming techniques defied everything she understood about hydrodynamics?
The thoughts should have intimidated her. Instead, they made her pulse quicken with anticipation.
She grabbed workout clothes next—moisture-wicking tops, athletic shorts, yoga pants that could transition from pool deck to whatever passed for social situations on an alien world. Then casual wear: jeans, t-shirts, a few dresses that made her feel confident and capable.
As she worked, folding clothes with steady hands that betrayed none of the restless energy building in her chest, reality began to crystallize.
It’s only a month.A temporary assignment. A chance to do something different.
But even as she thought it, she knew the words were a lie. This felt enormous. Life-altering. Like standing at the edge of something vast—the same sensation she’d experienced in those breathless seconds before an Olympic race, when the world simultaneously narrowed to a single lane and expanded to encompass infinite potential.
She paused for a moment, a silk blouse half-folded in her hands, and stared out her bedroom window. The sun hung lowon the horizon, painting the sky in shades of amber and rose. Her reflection ghosted in the glass—pale and uncertain, but with something fierce flickering in her blue eyes.
For the first time in years, something inside her felt genuinely awake. Not safe. Not certain. But vibrantly, dangerously alive.
And somewhere deep in her bones, in the place where instinct lived, she knew she wasn’t just leaving tomorrow. She was being pulled toward something that would change everything.
THREE
THALRIC
The silence in Thalric’s office seemed more oppressive than usual today. Five years. Five years since his adoptive father Alpha Roman had drawn his last labored breath in the very room where Thalric now stood staring out the window at the pink waters of Nova Aurora’s coastline. His sea wolf prowled restlessly beneath his skin, demanding release, demanding to go into the ocean and swim away all his current troubles.
