Fathom laid on his bed of furs and soft things, spines flattened as he wondered what to do.
He had very clearly broken his promise.
It wasn’t important that he’d done it unintentionally, he’d broken the chronoter which was clearly more valuable to Pryce than any of the other beautiful things he’d given him; this was the only one that moved on its own, as if it were alive.
But Fathom was confused by Pryce’s stilted behavior; he had expected him to be furious, but there was no elevated heartbeat, no slight reddening of the color of their skin, no sll of that ‘sweat’ which humans seed to produce when they experience physical exertion or emotional stress.
Instead, the human had acted like a hollow shell in comparison to his usual self. It was almost like the human did not care, but he was clearly distressed; why else would he ask to go back so suddenly?
He stood up and padded outside to take to the skies; a broken promise must be rectified.
Fathom landed on the deck of the ship cautiously; it was the first ti he had done so without Pryce to greet him. The circumstances made him feel like he was intruding, but he shook the feeling off as he waited. It took a few minutes, but Fathom could hear him moving around the ship, so he knew that Pryce was on his way.
The human in question…did not look good, even in Fathom’s limited experience. The skin under his eyes was darker, his eyelids drooped, and his shoulders were hunched instead of straight-backed, but perhaps the most important difference was how he dragged his feet as if he were half-asleep.
“Good morning,” he said.
Fathom withheld a response about how it did not seem like a ‘good’ morning, instead with a great effort he opened the bag to pull out Pryce’s gifts.
“I don’t want these,” Pryce said, shaking his head.
Fathom ignored him and set the mirror, coins, bottle, and marble onto the deck of the ship despite how it pained him to do so, then he handed what was left in the bag to Pryce, which he reluctantly accepted to look inside.
“I don’t want this either,” Pryce said, setting the gift back on the deck and pushing it towards Fathom with his foot.
“But…why?” Fathom had expected this response to so degree, but he simply could not understand how anyone could refuse things that were once theirs, yet alone the rare and beautiful things he had put into the bag.
“I don’t need them,” Pryce said simply, giving a tired shrug. “If this is about yesterday, don’t worry about it – what I ant was; you don’t need to give things back to , you don’t need to do things because you break chronoter.”
“But I promise you that I be careful, and I was not careful. When dragon break promise, they must do…this,” Fathom said, gesturing at the items on the deck.
Pryce paused, then said, “Alright, I’ll take it back.”
Fathom felt almost as distressed as he was relieved to be losing the treasures, though he-
“And now I give them back to you,” Pryce said.
“You…can’t do that?” Fathom said, though he was so bewildered that it sounded more like a question.
“Why not? I told you, I have no use for these things.”
“I..” Fathom trailed off, unsure of what to say.
“Let’s do sothing else today, maybe you can teach more about the animals here?”
“…yes,” Fathom said reluctantly, unwilling to argue. It was strange, Pryce had said not to worry about it, which based on the context of the other things he said had ant he considered the broken promise forgiven, and he was free to take the treasures back…so why did he feel so discontented?
Fathom told Pryce about the animals he had talked about earlier in greater detail, as well as other new species that were lesser threats but still dangerous to a human. Normally their conversation flowed easily, but today Pryce was so stiff and wooden that Fathom had to put in a great effort to carry out the discussion.
“Sotis big fish live in river, but…I do not know if they eat things like humans…” Fathom said uncertainly.
“Okay,” Pryce said, taking notes.
“Animals that look like crocodiles also live in water, sotis live on ground near water.”
“Okay.”
“…These animals that look like crocodiles look slow, but they are faster than humans.”
“Okay.”
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“…Why are you not mad?” Fathom asked, unable to bear the stilted conversation any longer.
“What?” Pryce asked, looking up at this non-sequitur.
“I break your things, you are not mad, you are not sad, you are…like this?” Fathom said, gesturing at Pryce. “Why?”
Pryce shrugged. “It’s my mistake anyway, if I did not want you to break it, I should not have given it to you. I knew you do not know how smooth tals are, so it is not your mistake, it is mine-”
“No, this is stupid!” Fathom hissed.
Pryce blinked, a little alard by the hostile display. “Er…what?”
“People get sick and die, you say is your mistake, crew get sick and die, you say is your mistake, I break chronoter, break promise, you say is your mistake! You make no sense!” Fathom ranted, causing Pryce to take an involuntary step back. The dragon cald after finishing this short tirade, then said tiredly, “I…I do not understand…”
They were both silent afterwards for so ti.
“I…guess I’m just used to being responsible for everything,” Pryce admitted. “On the mainland, I do many things to learn about antibiotics, many people do work for , many people do things I say, so if sothing goes wrong, then that is because I made mistake.”
“…I do not understand this, but it…makes sense,” Fathom said slowly. “…this still does not explain why chronoter is important to you. I know Chronoter is important to you, it asure ti, but…I do not understand, Chronoter can’t asure ti now, why do you have it?” Fathom asked, pointing at the pocket that held the broken device.
“I…it’s important to ,” Pryce said, his voice trembling an imperceptible amount.
“Why?” Fathom pressed.
Pryce sighed, and closed his eyes. “My friend, Max Wright made it and gave it to . That’s why it has the words ‘Wright Chronoter’ on it.”
Fathom had thought Pryce said that it was the ‘Right Chronoter’, so only now did the full realization of what he had done weigh upon him. Dragons did not quite have the sa concept of friendship as humans, but Fathom still knew Wright was soone very important to Pryce, and soone who had made sothing as amazing as the chronoter and given it to Pryce.
Soone whom Pryce had failed to protect.
Soone with whom Pryce had broken a promise.
“Co with ,” Fathom said, picking up Pryce’s bags – which still laid on the deck where he had left them yesterday – and Pryce himself in his other foreclaw.
“What are you-” Pryce’s protests were cut off by Fathom’s powerful leap into the sky.
“Euugh,” Pryce said, kneeling on all fours as he suppressed the urge to vomit. Fathom had flown much faster than he had yesterday, though Pryce suspected he was still restraining himself for Pryce’s sake.
“Wait here,” Fathom said, marching into his ho.
This request was sowhat pointless as Pryce could not have moved much even if he wanted to. After a few minutes his breath steadied and his nausea faded, enabling him to stand up. What was it that he said which seed to upset Fathom so much? That Wright made the chronoter? But he already told Fathom –
He smacked his face in realization; of course, it was a homonym. Fathom probably thought it was ‘right’ because it could rightly tell ti or sothing, or he could have just assud it was a strange human na. Pryce stood waiting for several minutes until Fathom returned, carrying sothing in his left foreclaw as he hobbled forward on three limbs.
The dragon set down sothing on the ground, then pulled his arm away to reveal the iridescent ammonite.
“This is…the ammonite Abyss gave you,” Pryce said breathlessly.
“Yes,” Fathom said, bowing his head. “I break your most important thing, so I give you my most important thing.”
“It wasn’t my most important thing,” Pryce dissuaded, not wanting to accept such an important gift.
“Then give chronoter,” Fathom demanded.
“W-What? No!” Pryce said, the refusal coming out before he could think.
“Chronoter is broken, but you keep chronoter because it is important to you,” Fathom said, completely outmaneuvering Pryce. “Do not tell lies. If this is not your most important thing, what is?”
When Pryce could say nothing, Fathom bowed his head deeply, and said solemnly, “I am apologize.”
The silence lasted for a few monts until Pryce chuckled, causing Fathom to whip his head up in surprise and confusion.
“It’s ‘I apologize’, or ‘I am sorry’,” Pryce explained.
Fathom huffed, hiding his relief behind exasperation. “Human language is so complicated.”
“I’m still not going to take it,” Pryce said, a few minutes later.
“What? Why?” Fathom demanded; He thought they had just resolved this issue.
“I have no use for it. I might want to study it later, but not now, and it’s important to you,” Pryce said.
“But-”
“Don’t worry, I forgive you. It really was an accident, and to tell the truth; maybe the chronoter was too much of a reminder for . You are right, I should move on, at least a little.” Pryce looked at the scratched and dented device for a few seconds, then darted his gaze between chronoter and dragon a few tis.
“What?” Fathom said, peering at the chronoter to see what Pryce was looking at.
“Nothing” Pryce said.
“These words are different from other side,” Fathom noted, “What is the aning of these words?”
“This is what Max wrote, it says ‘For A. Pry – That sonuvabitch!” Pryce abruptly swore as he realized sothing.
“You say ‘son of a bitch’ again, what is a ‘bitch’?” Fathom asked, a little irked by Pryce’s evasion.
“It’s…like an insult, but you say it when you are mad or annoyed,” Pryce explained with a huff.
Fathom rumbled; this explanation didn’t explain much at all.
“Max loved to make puns, puns are when you say words that have more than one aning, or say sothing funny with words, like when you said, ‘Wright was right’,” Pryce explained when Fathom had asked him to elaborate. “Humans have sothing called ‘money’ that we use to trade to each other. You can use money to trade for anything like shiny things or food, how much money you need to buy sothing is a ‘price’, which sounds like my na. I didn’t want him to give this to for no price, so he made a pun by giving this to ‘For A. Pryce’,” Pryce groused. “And no, my na is not that price, it’s a different word.”
“So confusing,” Fathom mumbled. “You mad, but you are smiling?”
Pryce realized he was, and imdiately wiped it off his face. “It…reminded of him. He made angry, but…he has not made angry in a long ti, so that makes happy.”
“…I think I understand,” Fathom said solemnly. “What the aning of your na?”
“I…don’t know.”
“How do you not know aning of your na?”
“It’s an old na and my family na, lots of people don’t know anings of their nas,” Pryce said dismissively. “I can’t get over how that asshole held onto this pun for decades, and I never noticed it because I never read them out loud.”
“Get over what? Asshole? Decades?” Fathom asked, confused by the barrage of new words.
“Oh, sorry. I an it annoys a lot, and a decade is 10 years, and an asshole is another insult.”
“You still not tell the aning of insults.”
Pryce sighed and opened his mouth, but before he uttered a single word Fathom snapped his head up in the direction of a great roar.
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