Apolépisi: A De-Scaling
ShortStory 2,384 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"I find Aleda’s scale, sticky with ichor, tucked between the tentacles of our pink anemone bed. I tweeze it out from the undulating appendages with my thumb and index finger and flounder against my escalating heart rate. Aleda’s swishing back and forth, getting ready for work near the mouth of our cave."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Lightspeed, where the author gets the click.