Marena wrote:Some years prior.........
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Dying....dying...
The poison took grip and her task complete, the mermaid let the current sweep her to where it wished, whether back to the arms of her captors or onwards to new...she no longer cared, for she knew death would come soon and it would be a blessed release. She had done her best to save the one thing she most cared about and her life was forfeit...only one miracle could be asked of the gods this day.
The mermaid's body bent like a branch bowing to the wind as the sea took of its own, bending the long blue scaled tailed sea creature to double, fins and limbs flowing limply and golden tresses sworling protectively about her ailing form. The pulse of life that remained was weak as the poison took the beauty in its deadly hold, the dart that delivered it long since fallen to the ocean's floor.
But Carain was not finished with her blessing and lent the seas a gentle guiding current...
... and put song to the winds that moved it
.... and teased the sea bird that rode it
..... and crooned to the dolphin that played within and without it
..asking for her lover Giran to find their child, protect her and bring her to the afterlife and to peace. She deserved that much for her sacrifice.
But the time of the war was now upon the oceans, when the gods did battle for reign and brought the seas to turmoil and the wind's message was intercepted by her former lover Akakios who did thwart her out of spite and old jealousy.
The body washed to a river mouth shore to dry without preparation.
No colorful weed decorated her form, there was no garland, there was no blessing.
There were no kin to either bring her to the sea foam or to draw her to Giran's oyster shell.
And Somewhere In The Past, This Is All Happening Right Now....
There was something to be said about abandoned riverside camps. A lot of the times, the places could be still serviceable to anyone enterprising enough to take a chance and stay in them. There was a mildly forested area not that far away, and enough dead wood to make fires for days. The man who had found this particular camp had considered himself relatively fortunate. Not as if that fortune would hold. It never seemed to in his case. Considering himself cursed, he had long left the closest city weeks before, stumbling along this holdout of forgotten civility. And it was here he had planned to stay until the weather got colder again. Then, of course, he found her. And everything around him changed completely.
He had never seen a merfolk before in their true form. And it had been a while since he had heard the legends about them. Not really one made of strength, picking up the female form was probably most difficult thing he had done in recent days. And that included moving one log from well inland to where he was now. Dead weight, and slippery at that, but as he saw some breathing, he figured he could afford the chance. If he had left her out in the shallows, either the tide would have eventually taken her away or something else would have. Freshwater crabs being one of the more likely candidates, though there were larger and more ominous predators to be found if one waited around long enough. As there had been no vultures there or similar scavengers, the man figured the female form had to have been proverbial "fresh meat." Not thta he was a cannibal himself, but maybe the merfolk's discovery would grant him some good fortune.
"Thank you, Morpheous and Leki, for this gift. To you both, I give praise and blessing." Not that he himself was wolven or Magi, but he had found those were two of the four deities he always thought himself best associated with. There was something to be said about that, but the human never really bothered to consider all of the ramifications. That would take too much thought away from his primary focus at the moment: survival. The few weapons he had were more than enough, but now he needed to set a slightly larger fire. One that would keep both him and his new "guest" warm. Laying an old shirt over the merfolk woman, he set about creating his campfire slowly and with a dire focus. This was not going to be the day he died.
Next up was acquiring a meal for the evening. Sure, he had caught nothing with his lines for days, but he believed this would be the one day luck would smile upon him. And smile it did, after he had set up the fires, did he manage to catch no less than five more carnivorous fish. The kind no river would miss for long as there was always more of them. Spitting them on skewers, he set them to roast high over the flames, hoping the scent of the fish would awaken the merfolk. And just as a precaution... he had made sure to keep his weapons by his side. Next thing you knew, the female decided she wanted to see how human heads rolled...