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Merfolk in general have a tail that makes up two thirds of their body length. With a fin that is shaped like that of a betta but positioned like a whale's. Males, called mermen, have the longer fins while those of mermaids and youngsters called merlings are shorter. Their upper bodies are outwardly very similar to those of humans. Their dentition most resembles that of a feline or ursine, excepting their human-like but still sharp incisors. At the end of their fingers are semi-retractable claws, those possessed by mermen being more robust and harder, while mermaids have thinner, sharper claws.

–Excerpt from Marvin’s Marvelous Field Guide to Nonhuman People

Chapter 1

A merman, like so many others this time of year, coiled up around a depression in the coral, guarded his nest of eggs. Unlike the others he was uncomfortably close to shore and extremely isolated from any nearby nesting mermen. Not even fathers teaching their young merlings how to hunt amongst the coral were within sight, nor were they close enough to hear if he was in trouble. Which, in this desolate sickly patch of coral he was.

Mermaids were supposed to bring their mates food while they guarded. If nothing else they should visit a few times a day and offer their breast. But his mate had not appeared before him even once. Not once since the day nearly four weeks prior, when she had laid his eggs and departed.

His name was Mathias. He was considered by most to be the most handsome merman of his pod. He had strong straight features, marred now by four parallel, bright red scars going diagonally across his left cheek. His eyes were dark blue, and his short hairs were medium blond. One of the ways that he stood out was the rich emerald green of his long hairs and posterior scales. Which transitioned smoothly along his sides into the bright silver of his anterior scales.

Most of his pod's coloration was more of a faded green on their posterior scales and long hairs, sky blue anterior scales. The delineation between the two was stark. Dark blonde short hairs, gray-blue eyes and tan skin were also the norm amongst this pod, all in contrast to Mathias save his tan skin.

Mathias stared broodingly at his eggs. A face that seemed more suited to smiles and laughter, already seemed to be forgetting what such actions are.

With a sigh, he buried his face in his arms to contemplate how he wound up in this mess. 'I never liked her,' he thought, 'but now I think I hate her.'

"Oh gods," he whimpered out in despair, "I hate the mother of my children!"

He spent a few moments fighting the urge to scream, or yell, or cry. None of it would help right now. And he had no energy to spare on emotions.

Finally he got back to thinking, 'Well, she always viewed me as her rival. Although I never viewed her as mine. I was always trying to be the best me I could be. I don't care how I compared to others. But rivalries in a school is normal and it doesn't normally lead to this!... But then most people aren't power hungry, narcissistic, psychopaths like she is. Yeah that's probably where this all came from, her personality.'

'It must of been such a shock when we came of age. Going from being the strongest and fastest to being the third strongest. But mermen are stronger, so of course if she turned out to be a maid some of us would grow stronger than her. If our genders had been reversed I might have been faster than her.'

'Maybe she thought she would grow to be a man? I did once hear her telling her siblings that she would rule this pod one day no matter what her gender turned out to be. Well she is already being trained to be our next leader. So I guess she got her wish.'

With a small whimper, his head shifted slightly as his hunger and emotion fueled exhaustion dragged him down into a fitful slumber.

~~~~~

"Juno." I whispered longingly into a head of light brown and dark green hair. Juno was one of the younger members of our school, and so matured a year later than my two brothers and myself, who were all courting her. She was smaller and curvier than most, with darker coloration than any excepting her father. She would not be going gravid this year and so would not be choosing a mate until the next. However, practice was part of courtship.

"Juno." I whispered again as I trailed kisses down the side of her head. Something about the kelp forest we were floating in seemed ominous. And there was a growing pit of dread in my stomach. But no matter how I tried to stop and look for the danger I could not gain control of my own actions.

"Matty," she murmured in response as she turned her head to meet my lips with her own. Teasing my tongue out to dance in her mouth, she wrapped her arms around my neck to hold me close. My hands settled on her hips for a moment.

My right hand traveled up to cup her breast. As the left traveled down to find the slit amongst her scales. Finding my goals my thumb ran circles around her nipple while my knuckle gently pressed into and ran along her slit.

Pretty soon my tongue was moving desperately in her moaning mouth. While my erection ground against her tail.

All too soon and not soon enough, she pulled her head away to breathlessly beg, "Mathias, please make love to me." With a needy groan I maneuvered her into position for my semi-prehensile penis to find her entrance. With a gentle tug at her hips to fully hilt myself, I wrapped my tail around hers and started undulating myself in and out.

My body had long since lost itself to pleasure. But my mind was still screaming that something was wrong. I just could not remember what. That is until I came. Then I remembered, this was a dream. It has already happened.

As he pulled away, I screamed at my past self, 'No! Don't go hunting. Stay! Cuddle, make love some more, talk until the moon rises!' But my pleas fell on deaf ears. As my mom often said, If people of the past could hear people of the future. Then the future would never happen.

She grabbed his arms and pulled him back with a playful pout. "Stay with me?" she asked him teasingly.

With a chuckle he kissed her forehead. "I've only had small meals for the past week." Smiling, he caressed her cheek and continued, "It's time for me to go hunting and get a big meal."

Behind his smiling eyes I begged pathetically, 'Please Juno, command me to stay. I can go a couple more days without hunting.' But of course she does not. What happened next has already happened, and like the nightmare it is. Will continue to happen. Until there is no longer a me to dream.

With a worried smile she sent him off. "Be safe hunting."

Grinning cheekily, he reminded her, "I always am."

I wondered as he swam through the kelp, 'Was that smile more worried than normal? Did Juno know that Chloe was lying in wait for me? If so, was she commanded to silence, or did she have some faith in that psychopath's integrity?' These questions would probably never be answered. Because I doubted I would ever have the guts to ask them aloud.

Towards the edge of the forest Chloe called out, "Mathias! Wait up."

Groaning, he rolled his eyes and turned. She was heavily gravid. So for once he could have outswam her if he tried. But like a good little mer he stayed put and waited.

Once she got within conversing distance, he grumpily growled, "I'm hungry, so make it quick."

She beamed at him, as if she were about to grant him the biggest prize and the best favor all rolled into one. "Will you be my mate?" she asked him cheerfully.

He stared at her slack jawed and incredulous for a few moments before barking out, "Are you kidding?! Because it's not a very good joke. Also. No!"

Her smile slowly turned into a scowl, and her arms crossed as she asked petulantly, "Why not? We're both the strongest, fastest, smartest, and best looking for our genders."

I had always thought Juno's whole family was better looking than either of us. And I could think of at least five other people who were smarter than both of us. But such arguments had always been useless with her.

He brought up the only argument that mattered, the one that should have settled the issue, "But we don't like each other."

Huffing, she rolled her eyes. "I hardly think that ma-" she began only to be interrupted by his irritable, "It matters! So, the answer will forever be no!"

At this point I start to frantically scream and cry within the prison of my mind. Trying desperately to wake up or block off what came next.

With a roll of his eyes, he turned to swim off. Only to be halted by her command of, "Mathias, mate with me."

He bellowed out in shocked anger, "No!" But his body obeyed him no more than it would obey me.

He cursed as he plunged into her too firm depths. A tirade about how wrong this was tried to leave his lips before being silenced by her command to kiss her.

I focused on the feel of her claws digging into the back of his head. Did my best to ignore the feel of her tongue invading his mouth. The feeling of his penis plunging in and out of her slowly softening passage. I did my best to ignore the feelings of horror, revulsion, and complete violation that just gets worse every time I have this dream. I did my best to just focus on the pain. And like always, I failed.

Finally, he shot his load and was able to pull away. Panting as if he were in oxygen starved water. He stared at her in obvious horror and revulsion.

Obliviously, she gazed at her swollen belly and said with proud satisfaction, "See how much better it is when you just obey?"

When she looked at his face however her smirk turned into a scowl. And with a scream of anger she extended her claws and slapped him as hard as she could…

Chapter 2

Mathias awoke with a gasp. Clutching his left cheek he could not help but relive the rest of that night during his waking hours.

Hyperventilating, he swam in a panicked circle around his nest. Even without being able to think straight he wouldn't willingly leave his eggs.

He remembered as if it were happening again. How he woke up from that slap, to her dragging him by his hair over the abandoned coral. He was sure she was going to kill him. So he begged and pleaded as she dragged him past the coral and nearly to the beach. Once they reached their destination, she merely gave him a contemptuous glare, laid their eggs and swam away.

He spent the rest of the night and part of the next day carefully maneuvering his ten fragile, pearlescent, gelatinous eggs into a safer, more secure location. Once he was done, his torso was covered in scrapes and bruises. The spot they had been initially was now dry. But the eggs were blemish free, and fully submerged. Their coral nest would soon be fully fortified.

With this last vision, he was finally able to snap out of it and cling to the side of his nest with eyes fixated on his eggs.

"The eggs are safe." He chanted to himself, while shivering in reaction, "The eggs are safe. The eggs are safe. They will successfully hatch into fry. Which will grow into healthy happy merlings. The eggs are safe."

Once Mathias calmed himself down, he began to range around his nest for food. Having found a single crab about the size of his thumb he popped it into his mouth. Crunching it down quickly, he groused aloud, "I'm going to have to move the fry when they hatch." Swiping a shaky hand over his face he laughed ruefully and muttered, "If I live that long."

It was at that moment that he noticed a shadow moving over the water. He used to hunt seagulls on the wing when he was younger. These days he did not find it worth the effort. But that shadow was quite a bit bigger than a seagull.

His adams apple bobbed as he swallowed, imagining the taste of fresh bird flesh. Without a conscious thought he was moving. He swiftly cut through the water and with a mighty leap he had the... Bird? By the wings.

Mathias' thoughts raced as he tried to wrestle the cursing... birdmaid? To wrestle the feathery thing into holding still, so they would fall into the water. 'Very large. Talons almost piercing my tail. So, sharp talons. Dark brown feathers. Head and chest of a mermaid. Small arms placed under the wings that look like someone took a bird's legs and turned them into arms. probably six nipples under the breasts. Incomprehensible noises that are probably words. Not a monster bird. Harpy. Ugg! I don't want to be a murderer.'

With a frown and a sigh, he tried to release her and fall back into the water. Only to realize that she was gripping him with four limbs while her teeth yanked and gnashed on his ear. Yelping, he switched between trying to cripple her wings, to trying to escape her grasp.

But it didn't matter how he twisted and scratched. He no longer had the strength to escape or properly wound her. Twenty minutes later the harpy crashed them into the beach pinning him beneath her.

He clawed the shoulders of her bird arms. His tail whacked her about the head. Her arms were crossed over his throat with her weight behind them.

Leaning into his ear, she growled throatily, "Fuck, flee, or fight to the death?"

His tail stopped midair to flop back to the sand. His claws pulled back as his hands relaxed. As soon as he relaxed she slowly let up the pressure on his neck, so that he could ask, "Fuck?" He had never heard the word before and was curious.

With a lusty grin, she swooped down to kiss him. Which elicited a startled gasp. Taking advantage of his open mouth she eased her tongue into exploring his mouth. He froze up momentarily expecting it to feel vile. Only to find her tongue warm and pleasant. Especially when it rubbed against the roof of his mouth. He found it so arousing that pretty soon he was moaning softly into her mouth while wrestling her tongue with his own. Trying to get it to spend more time at the roof of his mouth. All while his trembling hands slid down her body.

The pleasantly erotic feel of her feathers under his fingers and her warm skin under his palms further distracted from any thoughts excepting, 'This feels good.' Soon enough his hands found her hips and slid inwards to explore her belly. Where he found the first of her nipples. Obsessing over the feel of her tongue in his mouth, he still retained just enough self control to gently caress her lower most nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. As he moved his hands up to the next set of nipples she pulled her head back. With a needy growly whine he pinched and tugged at those nipples.

"Oh yeah baby," she cooed out huskily, "Pinch and pull." She rocked her wet mound against where his scales met his skin and only inches from where his penis was rapidly emerging.

He arched his head back with a moan. Waves of pleasure wracking through his body as he practically mauled her rows of nipples and her two perky breasts. With his claws occasionally pricking her skin. "Do you like that?" she cooed huskily.

"Yeah," he responded shakily.

"Do you want to be inside me?" she asked teasingly.

"Please?" he begged brokenly, his whole body undulating beneath her.

With a frown, she shook her head. "No. You should demand it," after saying so, she lunged down to kiss and nip along his neck, shoulder and finally his collar bone.

He writhed and moaned as she played him like a pleasure filled instrument. That is until he caught the scent of her blood, and his body reminded him of one of the miseries he had been ignoring and making worse.

With a growl of mixed lust and hunger and a surge of strength, he hugged her tightly and pulled her abused left secondary shoulder up to his mouth. Ignoring her squawk of surprise, he licked her skin clean. Then latched onto the largest wound to suck hungrily. She bit and tugged his ear as her little talon-like hands moved over his sides and chest.

He closed his eyes and moaned in pleasure. The sensation of her skin and feathers against his face, her dull teeth on his ear, her soft chest on his neck and shoulders and even her small hand talons scratching delicately at his ribs. It all conspired to drive him back to a heightened state of distracted arousal.

He let go of her and whispered hoarsely, "Move down." He continued to instruct as she moved, "Lower, lower, a little more. Mmm! Yeah, right there!" His hands settled back onto her hips gripping tight enough that his claws caught in her feathers. A low moan escaped from him at the feel of his tip seeking out her entrance amongst her damp and wet feathers.

With a grunt he thrust up into her uncomfortably hot, yet oh so pleasantly wet, and tight yet pliant depths. With a mewling moan he gushed, "So hot! So good!"

Whimpering, his hips slapped back to the sand as he complained, "But why is everything so heavy on land?"

Chuckling, she pressed her lips back to his so that their tongues could duel while she roughly rode his throbbing penis. Mathias eagerly kneaded at her hips as their mutual sounds of passion continued to get louder and louder. Until suddenly, he couldn't stand it anymore, and with a cry he dug his claws into her and yanked her down to have the most intense orgasm of his life right into her depths.

Shuddering and gasping, his hands flopped to the sand. As she arched and trembled upon him.

He was unsure how he felt about what just happened. Nor how he should feel about it. But he was sure it was closer to a positive emotion than he had had in over three weeks.

"Huh," she remarked as she calmed down and climbed awkwardly off him. "Your hair turns blond as it dries."

"Weird," he said hoarsely before asking worriedly, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she replied with a cheeky grin, "I'll be completely healed in a day or two."

"Good," he grunted out, as he tried to rock himself out of the hollow they had created in the sand around his upper body.

She watched his futile efforts for a moment. Then glanced at the surf. Returning her gaze to him once again, she gave him a confused look and curiously asked, "The tide will reach you in about five minutes. Can't you wait and relax until then?"

Mathias frantically shook his head and explained, "I've got to get back to my eggs!" Without anything to distract him, his anxiety was swiftly mounting.

Although clearly startled, she swiftly thrust a foot out over the top of him, her four toes clenched into a fist. "Grab my wrist, I'll pull!" she blurted out hurriedly.

He grabbed the proffered appendage firmly. Then with a sklorping pop she half pulled him out of the hole. But more importantly onto his belly. Then like a clumsy seal he turned to make his way into the water.

"Why did you attack me?" She asked him crossly.

Quickly as he could, he thought up a lie, "I, uh, thought you were after my eggs."

At this she scoffed, "Bullshit. There is nothing in these skies that would threaten a mermaid's egg. Try again."

Sighing he admitted shamefully, "I'm starving." Then before she could respond he plunged his head into the water. Pausing only long enough to let the water flow into his poor sore throat. He quickly made his way to his nest.

Chapter 3

Arriving at his nest, Mathias frantically checked it over. Finding no signs of damage or anything hiding amongst the eggs he collapsed on the edge and started to think, 'I think those words she said at first were curse words... But they're not ones I'm familiar with.'

"What is a cunt and what does it have to do with fucking?" he mused as he gazed around at his surroundings.

Mathias sighed and looked back at his eggs. 'There were a lot of bubbles coming out of the sand, and lots of tiny fish. I should be able to take them hunting there until they can safely make a longer journey.' he thought optimistically.

His last worn out thought as he drifted out of consciousness was one of regret, 'I shouldn't have gone so far from my nest.' He had successfully skirted around just what he had done while so far from his nest. His mind wasn't yet ready to process such a confusing situation.

~~~~~

Several hours later, he awoke with a scream. Panting, he clung to the faded coral as he gazed wildly around. As soon as he calmed down enough to think he muttered, "Thank the gods that ended early. But what woke me?"

Just as the scent of blood hit his nose, Mathias heard a bloop of something splashing into the water.

Quickly, he twisted around to face the potential threat, only to see some entrails slowly drifting down near an enormous boulder that jutted out of the water.

Mathias sucked at his lower lip and looked between the sinking entrails and his eggs. "It is at the edge of where I like to scrounge," he reasoned.

"It might be a trap though," he continued while pondering, 'Only two people know where I am.'

"And Chloe is unlikely to be up out of the water,” he finished out loud.

Deciding to take the gamble, he cautiously swam over. Once he touched the boulder, he looked up at where the entrails originated from. Upon seeing a brown and pink blob, he muttered "Harpy," and glanced down at the tasty treat.

His eyes widened as he spotted the tastier treat below the entrails. "Liver!" he gasped delightedly as he eagerly dove down. Scooping up his prizes he ate them and quickly as he could while making as minimal a mess as possible.

Looking up again, Mathias saw that the harpy was still there. So, he swam up along the boulder. 'The liver splashing is probably what woke me,' he thought as he neared the surface. Popping out of the water he held onto the boulder to keep himself steady.

Mathias gave the harpy that he had attacked earlier in the day a self conscious smile and a sheepish, "Hey."

She happily returned his smile and responded mischievously, "Hello there! Would you like some venison?" She scooted to the side, revealing a four limbed, disemboweled, brown and white creature that took up most of the exposed boulder top.

He sucked in his lower lip and stared at the meat as his stomach gurgled and growled for the first time in weeks. It seemed to have given up after the first week of his privation.

With a wary look at the harpy, he asked, "Where's the hook?"

She blinked in confusion at him. "The hook?" she asked slowly, "Is that like asking what the catch is?"

Mathias shrugged and clarified, "What's the trick, where is the trap, or do you want something in exchange?"

Before she could answer, he went from wary to suspiciously glaring. "Those intestines tasted weird... You didn't feed me anything poisonous, did you?" he growled out at her.

"What?! No! Why would I?" she spluttered out in outrage. "Even if I wanted to harm you. Which I don't! Why would I poison the bait?"

"Well alright," he conceded as his shoulders relaxed.

His gaze drifted back to the bloody meat. Hungrily sucking his lower lip back into his mouth he mumbled out a muffled, "So?"

She just couldn't help herself as she laughed and teased him, "Well aren't you adorable."

"Yes," he replied distractedly, "I'm flipping adorable. Probably the cutest thing you'll ever see. I'll even pose for you if it'll get me fed."

Struck by inspiration he turned to face her fully, and gave her the pouting pleading look that had always gotten him extra food from his parents when he was little.

Chuckling at his words, she shook her head. "There's no need to go that fa..." she started, before getting distracted by his puppy dog eyes. "Goddess..." she mumbled wide eyed. "That's not fucking fair!"

Mathias laid his head on his crossed arms. He tilted it to look up at her and whimpered softly while pouting his lower lip out a tiny bit more.

"Shit! Fine!" she exclaimed while covering her face with a wing. "Take the damned deer!"

Chortling gleefully he pulled himself on to the boulder and started wiggling closer to the deer before pausing and asking, "Wait, are deer and venison the same thing?"

"Yeah," she sighed and settled her wing back in place. "Venison is deer meat."

"Groovy," he said happily as he got back to wiggling towards the deer.

The deer wasn't really that far from the edge of the boulder. But the boulder was slippery, and didn't have many cracks for him to dig his claws into. And merfolk are dense and heavy, so Mathias wanted to grab the carcass with his mouth to make slipping back into the water safer.

"I just wanted to talk for a bit," she grumbled as she hauled the deer closer to him with a foot.

Mathias gave her a grateful look. "Well, the blood might attract sharks. But I can take the venison down where I can watch for sharks while I eat. And then when I'm sure no sharks are coming I can pop up here to talk again."

"Sounds like a plan to me," she said in cheerful relief. "I need to get something to eat for myself anyways. And then I'll fly right back here."

Mathias nodded and replied, "I'll watch for your shadow, and then we can meet here when we're both done."

Grabbing a hoof in his mouth, he mumbled a muffled, "Fan few," as he carefully slipped back into the water. Then he settled down a mere body length away from his nest to enjoy his first proper meal in a while.

~~~~~

A short while later all that was left of the deer was a pile of large, broken bones that had been gnawed, licked and sucked clean. Soon enough even that was gone as Mathias scattered them around the edge of his comfort zone.

Once Mathias finished cleaning his mess he perched energetically at the edge of his nest. "I'm sorry my eggs," he murmured guiltily while he gently caressed and stirred them with the long flexible fin at the end of his tail. "I haven't been tending you like I should have been." After a bit he pulled his fin out and licked it clean of the algae that he had rubbed off the eggs.

He then sat there swishing water over and amongst his eggs as he looked around alertly and mused, 'Okay, so, she wants to talk? About what I wonder... She is probably curious as to what I'm doing here alone with a nest of eggs. She might also be lonely. I don't know anything about harpies beyond their looks and what I've learned today.'

"Maybe she wants to do that again," Mathias whispered while blushing from his hair to his chest. 'I mean it did feel good, but...' his thoughts trailed off as he noticed a certain tingle in his penile slit. He pressed a hand to it and muttered, "Think of something else! Think of something else!"

But the harder he tried to drag his thoughts elsewhere the more they went right back to it. 'Oh... But it felt so good. I can't think of anything that's felt better and she looked like she was enjoying herself a lot too. It was so wild and mind numbing.'

"Oh! Barnacles!" Mathias cursed as he simultaneously noticed a shadow circling overhead and the tip of his penis poking into his palm.

"Come on! Negative thoughts," he muttered and finally came up with, 'Am I going to be able to go back to careful loving?' Groaning he rubbed his face with his free hand as he felt his penis prodding against the hand holding it in.

"More negative than that," he scolded himself and tried again, 'Okay, okay, so the top of that boulder would be too dangerous. And the beach too far. I'm not getting that far from my young again.' His penis had stopped trying to grow but had not yet begun to shrink.

"Um... Ummm..." he muttered and tried a different current, 'Am I an unfaithful mate? I don't feel like one. I have no affection for Chloe, and I would have never chosen her on my own. But the harpy might see me as one. Other mers will probably view me as being unfaithful. And Chloe definitely will.'

With those gloomy thoughts his penile slit finally sealed his penis inside his body. Mathias sighed and his shoulders slumped. He pulled his fin away from his eggs and gave them one more look over before swimming to the boulder. He was no longer looking forward to talking to her quite as much as earlier, but he had already promised. And he was a merman of his word.

Chapter 4

Surfacing at the boulder once more, Mathias gave the harpy a complicated look. He then attempted to give her a smile as he said, "Uh, hi."

She gave him a reassuring smile and said, "Hey. Don't worry I won't push you on anything you don't want to talk about."

"Oh, okay," he replied slowly.

"So," she continued cheerfully, "I'm Clara!"

"Ah!" he exclaimed in embarrassment, flushing as he realized that neither of them had bothered trying to learn the other's name. Dipping his head in a slight bow he responded sheepishly, "I'm Mathias."

Clara grinned lasciviously at him and commented flirtatiously, "You were pretty energetic for a starving guy."

Mathias groaned in further embarrassment and thumped his forehead gently against the boulder as he explained, "My body even when starving can fuel brief bursts of energy when getting food or procreating."

She blinked for a moment before giggling. "Oh boy," she finally managed as he stared up at her in bafflement, "You don't know how to flirt, do you?"

Huffing, he responded stiffly, "I know how to flirt. Flirting is playing with a maiden's hair while giving her compliments. Or just barely brushing against her as you're passing her by."

"Hmm yes," she agreed, "It can be that. It can also be almost naughty touching, light dirty talk, sex jokes and bantering."

Mathias gazed at her skeptically. To which Clara merely sighed and shrugged before moving on to something she was actually curious about, "So, how did you end up in this situation anyways?"

Any hint of happiness that had been on his face vanished as if it had never been there. Lowering his eyes Mathias sighed and said morosely, "A mermaid I've never liked forced me to be her mate, and when she saw how unhappy I was over it. She abandoned me and my eggs out here."

Clara squawked out in surprised outrage, "What! But how?"

Mathias grumbled out a soft response, "You know, a maid doesn't actually need magical coercion to rape a man."

"Magical coercion?" Clara asked suspiciously.

Shuffling closer to him, she brushed her flight feathers against his face as she cooed out coaxingly, "Mathias darling, how was she able to magically coerce you?"

Sighing in pleasure, he rubbed his face against her feathers. "It's not forbidden to talk to people of the land about the blessings. But it's also not done," he rambled dazedly.

She settled lower down onto her belly so she could tuck his hair out of his face with one hand and tilt his chin up with the other. "But sweet darling, I'm not a person of the land. I'm a creature of the sky," she pointed out in her soft coaxing cooing tone.

Mathias gazed into her eyes soaking up her earnest compassionate gaze. Then he forced his eyes closed and murmured as he contorted himself to tuck his forehead into the crook of her neck with his right ear to her shoulder. "It's hard... And long."

Clara's lips twitched briefly as she fought down the smile that her dirty mind tried to draw up from his words.

Humming a soft lullaby she rested her chin upon the side of Mathias' forehead. Such gentle intimacies was not something that a harpy often allowed outside of her flock. But she could not bring herself to reject someone who was alone with such pain.

Clara started to stroke from his head to his back. But when her taloned hand touched the back of his head he froze up and let out a soft fearful whimper. Without missing a beat in her humming she lifted her hand from his head and settled it upon his shoulder. Where she swept a continuous soothing circle.

Mathias breathed in the scent of her skin, feathers and the tangy sweet scent of her most recent meal as he slowly relaxed into her.

To any humans who might have seen them their postures would have looked uncomfortable, painful even. But neither of them were human. To them the way they were nestled together was extremely comfortable.

Eventually, Mathias moved, curling his left hand into a loose fist he slid under Clara so he could carefully rest his hand on her foot. Not wanting to break the mood he asked her in a whisper, "What are the words?"

Clara glanced at his scarred up cheek and smiled as she softly sang,

Come little birdy let's fly along.

We'll catch the evening breeze out to the sea.

To spy upon Iris painting the sunset waves.

Then home to our nest before the moonrising.

Where sweet dreams will accompany you all night long.

He hummed along as she sang the lullaby a few times through. Then he sighed and briefly squeezed her foot saying, "It is a long tale that most merfolk find upsetting."

Turning her head, Clara rubbed her cheek on his hair and said reassuringly, "If you need to take breaks to tend your eggs, I'll understand. And I can see if anything tries to get close from here."

"Alright," Mathias said with the briefest of smiles, "I'll just zip down and tend them real quick." Partially disentangling himself from her, he cupped her cheek with his right hand and gave her a quick yet firm kiss. Then with one last small smile he disentangled himself the rest of the way to disappear beneath the waves.

Mathias darted over to his nest and gave each egg a gentle and thorough caress with his tail fin. Then he darted back to where Clara was perched.

Popping back out of the water, he gave Clara a thoughtful look as he tried to organize his thoughts. "So..." he started only to drift off into a thoughtful frown.

"Hmm... Maybe I should explain as if to a merling?" he asked her uncertainly.

Smiling, Clara nodded encouragingly. "Yes, explaining as if I know nothing might work," she agreed brightly.

Mathias thought about it for maybe half a moment more. Then with a decisive grunt and an energetic wiggle he pushed himself out of the water. Once on the boulder he gracelessly flopped and coiled so that he could sit facing the same way as his new friend.

Clara smirked delightedly and opened her left wing invitingly as she shuffled closer to Mathias. Giving Clara an oddly shy smile Mathias leaned into her side allowing her to wrap a wing around him and rest one of her small talon hands on his shoulder.

Without giving himself too much time to think, Mathias dove right into it with a measured almost practiced tone, "We were not created by Neptune. Because while a single god can create life. It takes two or more gods to be capable of the complexity necessary to create sentient life. A titan however. There are many reasons why gods and titans do not always get along. And the titans ability to create people almost on a whim was one of them. Our creator was the Titan Oceanus."

"When Oceanus decided that the seas were too quiet, and that the sea monsters were too numerous he needed people to populate it. And he loved his wife and daughters so much that he used them for the inspiration for his new mermaids."

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Clara interrupted.

Chuckling, Mathias nodded, "Yeah, I've always thought so too. But! No interrupting, excepting for danger. You'll make the tale take longer."

"Alright, sorry," Clara replied unrepentantly.

With an exasperated laugh, Mathias continued, "Oceanus created exactly three thousand mermaids. All female, all as beautiful as could be, and looking as little like each other as possible."

He put a hand over her mouth to forestall the question he could feel her drawing a breath to ask. "Please save your questions," he told her firmly. Grinning saucily, she licked his palm and kept quiet.

Mathias gave Clara a stern look but could not entirely hold back his amusement as he tried to continue once more, "Mermaids back then were even more humanlike than they are now, so Oceanus outfitted them with armor and weapons that we have no way of replicating. They were also ageless. So they had no need to reproduce. Whenever one died Oceanus would simply recreate them with their souls and memories intact."

"When the time came for the titans to step back and hand the world over to the gods. He knew that as they were mermaids, his greatest tribute to his wife and daughters would eventually cease to exist without him. So Oceanus handed the mermaids over to his wife Tethys and asked her to do what she had to to ensure that we could endure in some form without them."

"When Tethys finished her alterations, and finished making her Three Thousand Mermen she showed us to Oceanus. And Oceanus was pleased."

"Before he sent us out to disperse he pointed out that Tethys had done things for us that he never would have thought of, and so we should try new things as well. He also let us know that the God Neptune would be taking over the oceans. So we should build our temples to him."

"For a long while everything was good. We built temples. We worshiped our god. And the goddesses our titans had left behind. We formed pods. Our numbers grew and we dispersed more."

"But then Neptune's three daughters decided that they wanted to play amongst the merfolk..." Mathias' voice sank into silence and he sighed.

"I need a moment," he murmured as he slipped out of Clara's embrace.

"Um, okay," she gave him a worried look as he wiggled towards the water. "Take your time, I'll get us a snack," she told him reassuringly.

He gave her a grateful smile as he splashed into the water.

Chapter 5

Once again, Mathias perched upon the edge of his nest deep in thought as his tail fin steadily oscillated the water over his eggs. He gazed out into the deeper waters, seeing but not really seeing the pale dead coral. Coral marred further by the occasional crumbling craters that at one point may have been lovingly built nests.

Mathias was at once feeling a strong sense of homesickness and nostalgic longing. His mother had told them this particular story once or twice a year. The only time he could remember it not being a solemn affair was the night his father had brought his younger siblings to sleep in the kelp for the first time. That night he and his brothers had been so excited and curious about their younger siblings that they couldn't hold still. Their older siblings repeatedly threatened to squash them, and their dad couldn't hide his grin. Even their usually stoic and reserved mother had a smile trying to sneak onto her lips that night.

Mathias sighed, the small smile that memory had brought up slipping as he continued to think, 'Not having to tell these tales was one of the upsides to growing into a man. But somehow I don't think that she will think that teaching is an important enough task to lower herself to do...'

"And I'm not sure I'd trust her enough with my kids if she wanted to try," he admitted softly to himself.

Mathias' eyes finally alighted on the craters amongst the coral. 'I wonder if one of those is the nest dad raised my older sibs in,' he mused before letting out a shaky sigh as he sank further into his thoughts.

He missed his dad's comforting arms and his naive younger self who believed that as long as he could reach the comfort of those arms then everything would be alright.

He missed his mom's calm presence and her occasionally incomprehensible sayings.

He missed believing that the worst monsters could all be found in her tales.

Most of all, he missed his clutchmates, his brothers. Darius and Linus were always the aggressive ones of the quartet, with their idea of a friendly greeting being a bit of a tussle. Whereas little Tito understood people on an instinctive level that always left him and their brothers in awe. That along with his small size leading everyone to underestimate him meant that Tito had gotten their quartet and to a lesser extent their school, out of more trouble than they had gotten themselves into.

"But they're not here," Mathias said shakily. "They all probably assume that I died while hunting. By biting off more than I could chew or something."

"Ugg!" exclaiming in frustration Mathias slammed his forehead into his palms. He raked his fingers impatiently through his hair as he muttered a piece of his mother's advice to himself, "Don't look back, look forward. Don't dwell on what could have or should have happened. Instead, figure out what you need to do now."

Mathias breathed in deep soothing breaths while thinking it through, 'Well right now I need to get out of my thoughts. Which I guess means going and giving a history lesson that might be hitting a little close to home for comfort. But hey, there will be snacks!'

With one last deep cleansing breath and a careful scan of the area. Mathias turned and swam to the boulder. Gazing up at the growing brown and pink blob awaiting him at the top of the boulder, he felt both relief and guilt that Clara was already there.

Emerging from the water, Mathias attempted to give her a bright smile as he said, "Hi, have you been waiting long?"

"No, not really," she responded apprehensively while eyeing the painful look on his face.

"Do you... feel any better?" she hesitantly asked.

"No, not really," he parroted, dropping the pained grimace.

"But I heard that there would be a snack?" he inquired, perking up just the tiniest bit as he wiggled and thrashed his way back on to the boulder top.

Clara cracked out a short laugh and explained, "Yeah. Well first I got us apples, but then I realized that I didn't know if mermen could eat plants, so I snagged a squirrel for you too."

As he managed to get himself into a seated position, he grunted and gazed out before he looked back at Clara and responded, "We don't need vegetation to be healthy, but it can nourish us." He then tilted his head and looked her over. Trying to spot the squirrel he continued, "Meat is usually much tastier though."

Chuckling, Clara held out the bloody squirrel. Grasping it firmly in her foot until Mathias took a hold of it.

Flashing Clara a smile, he thanked her and held up the squirrel to examine it. "Huh, cute," he mumbled to himself. Unhinging his jaw like a snake he shoved the whole thing into his mouth and snapped it shut with a loud crunch.

The harpy burst into laughter as the squirrel disappeared into his mouth causing his cheeks to distend. Mathias gave her a curious look as he chewed.

"Well," Clara explained, "You look like a squirrel with a nut. And, also usually people skin and debone their meat before eating it." His curious expression morphed into one of bafflement, so she elaborated, "Most land and sky bound people need to cook meat to safely eat it. Hell, even most animals can't digest fur and bones."

Mathias let out an incredulous snort, and tilted his head back as he visibly swallowed. Looking back at Clara he finally responded out loud, "Well some of the fur does get between my teeth, but it's nothing my tongue can't take care of."

"Oh! Really now?" she asked huskily as his tongue moved purposefully within his mouth.

"Mmhmm," he hummed out, completely oblivious of her tone of voice.

Shortly, he turned his attention to his hand seeking out any errant specks of blood that might remain. Not finding much, his attention drifted to her feet. 'Would it be rude to ask to lick the blood off her feet?' he wondered as he stared intently at them.

Just as Mathias was deciding to risk it and ask. Clara shuffled her feet and asked nervously, "Do you want to try an apple?"

His gaze jerked upwards and with an eager "Yes, please!" He took the proffered red fruit, streaked with green and yellow. Then before she could say a word he tossed the fist sized fruit into his mouth.

"No! Wait!" She cried out in a panic as he crunched the apple. His eyes grew wide but otherwise he held completely still.

While the apple juices and saliva pooled in his mouth, she weakly explained, "The seeds are poisonous.”

A look of consternation took over his face as the urge to continue chewing the deliciously sweet and tangy fruit warred with the urge to spit out the poisonous seeds.

The corners of her lips twitched as she freed up her hands by biting into her apple to hold it with her mouth. Shuffling closer she said as sternly as she could with a blocked mouth, "Oh-hen." Opening his mouth he gave her a pained look as he felt the saliva and juices dripping down his face.

Clara quickly pulled most of the crushed apple out of his mouth and told him, "Saw-wul."

Mathias snapped his mouth shut and swallowed what was left in it. Then he turned his attention to cleaning his face with hands and tongue much like a cat would.

"A heh!" Clara interrupted him crossly, "Hans."

"Ah, sorry," Mathias blushed and said contritely as he held his hands out.

"Oo-heh-wur," she instructed him.

After a moment of thought, Mathias slowly put his hands together side by side and palms up. "Like this?" he asked uncertainly.

"Ehs," she mumbled affirmatively.

Setting the apple in his palms, she mumbled out, "Hole ih." Then she used her talons to delicately pry open the partially exposed seed chambers and flick the seeds away.

"Goh ah-heh," she mumbled to him before grasping her own apple and taking a bite.

Mathias glanced between her and the apple uncertainly for a moment before tossing the apple back into his mouth and crunching happily.

Clearing her mouth, Clara explained, "Apple seeds aren't really that poisonous. Normally it'd take a lot to make someone sick. And even then it'd just be a stomach ache and a bit of the runs."

Seeing his brief look of confusion, she clarified, "Er um, the runs being watery poop that is. But I don't know how long you've been starved, nor how sensitive to poison you are."

Mathias gave Clara a grateful smile as he swallowed and said, "Yeah, that doesn't sound like any poison I've heard of, so I don't know either. Ah, I guess what I mean is thank you," he petered out the last bit, mumbling and blushing.

Chuckling, she finished her apple as quickly as she could before chucking the apple core.

Mathias watched her eat while he fidgeted. Once she threw the core he gave her a wane smile and said softly, "I guess it's time to continue my story now."

Clara sighed and moved closer to put her left hand on his right shoulder. "You don't have to," she reassured him softly, "I meant it when I said I wouldn't push you on anything."

Sighing himself, he shook his head and rested his hand on hers as he explained, "Well I could probably explain what's going on without doing so, but you're actively saving my life, so I feel like you deserve the whole story."

"Actively..." Clara began before trailing off. Giving Mathias a worried look she carefully asked, "How close to death were you?"

He gave her hand a brief squeeze before grabbing the skin on his belly. Mathias pulled it out by about a hand span. He stared thoughtfully at it for a few moments before letting go and answering, "Maybe a week. The hunger, nightmares, and isolation would have probably driven me to autocannibalism first though. Which would have killed me sooner."

Giving him a wide eyed horrified look, Clara squeaked out, "Then what would have happened to your eggs?!"

Sighing yet again, Mathias responded gloomily, "Presuming nothing gets drawn in by my blood. They would probably all hatch. Without me tending them they wouldn't be as healthy, and might even hatch early. But they would hatch. And then after eating whatever is left of my corpse... They would hunt each other until only the strongest are left. Any remaining fry would then swim off searching for food. If they're extremely lucky someone would find them at this point and take care of them. But... It's much more likely that they get eaten themselves at this point."

Blanching, Clara asked in a daze, "How many lives am I saving?"

Scooting closer, Mathias leaned his head on her double collar bones and said in a soft sad voice, "Counting me, eleven."

Gulping, Clara nodded and wrapped her left wing around him. "Yeah," she said shakily, "If it makes you feel less like you owe me. Then please do share the story."

Chapter 6

Smiling faintly, Mathias snuggled into Clara as he asked himself, "So, where was I?"

This time, other than petting his back, Clara held still and silent.

"Oh, right," he said as he continued his tale "Neptune's three eldest daughters decided to play amongst the merfolk."

"Most of the children that the sea goddesses bear for Neptune are nereids or tritons. Both of which, even the tritons, have far more in common with the original mermaids than they do modern merfolk. Neptune's three eldest are no exception."

"Now if they had been oceanids, who have great magical powers and are the source of most sailors' tales of sea witches? They would have been fine. But they are nereids. If they had not had such blind trust in who they are to keep them safe. Then they might have spotted the danger and avoided it. But they did not. If those around the perpetrators had paid more attention instead of avoiding them, then the danger might have been minimized or averted. But we did not. And no one, not even Chronos can change history. All we can do is learn from it."

"At first all was well. Their faith in who they were keeping them safe seemed justified. They traveled for many years. Playing, flirting and living in numerous pods. But for the pods they visited, we had no clue who they were. And most would not have cared if we knew. Their friendliness made them friends, and their weaknesses made their friends protective. They however found the protectiveness stifling, so they made a habit of sneaking away whenever they tired of a pod."

"The last pod they visited had a pair of brothers in it. Brothers who were not related to each other, but they just could not get along with anyone else, and they were not lovers. So, they were brothers. They broke no pod laws, so they were never chased out. However with no friends excepting each other they lived on the edge of everything. Ignored, mateless, and somewhat forgotten."

"When the sisters arrived at this particular pod they were shortly followed by a worried mer from the previous pod. Now this merperson did not stay long, but they did answer any questions asked while they were there. Which is how the brothers learned that this was not the first time these gorgeous, vulnerable maids had been followed by a worried mer. So, the brothers started hatching up a plan."

"For a few years the merfolk in the new pod worried that the trio would put themselves in danger, but when they continued to meekly accept protection when offered they stopped watching them so closely. All except the brothers. The brothers continued to keep a close eye on them while carefully preparing a secure place to keep the sisters."

"Eventually the sisters tired of the pod, as they were want to do. But when they snuck out this time... There were still two who watched them. Two who were just waiting for the maids to slip far enough away from their protective friends. Then once they were... The brothers caught the sisters and brought them to their home."

Mathias stopped speaking for a bit. That had not been the part of the story that used to bother him the most. But as he sat there trembling, and desperately breathing in Clara's scent trying to calm himself he could no longer imagine how he had found any other part of the tale more upsetting.

Clara rubbed her cheek against his head as she softly sang her lullaby. On the third repetition, Mathias sang along with her. Then he took a deep breath and gave her a soft, "Thank you. I think I'm ready to continue now."

Hugging him with her wings, Clara told him gently, "Only when you're sure you're ready."

Taking a couple more deep soothing breaths, Mathias responded more confidently, "Yeah, I'm sure I'm ready."

Clara went back to silently petting his back as Mathias dove into the tale once more, "Now these nereids never told us what they were. Nereids wasn't even a word that any mortal would hear for several more years. When they bothered to mention their origins at all, they would claim that they were throwbacks to the original mermaids. Only without their weapons, armor, and skills."

"When they disappeared swimmers were immediately sent to all nearby pods. But... they weren't there. For three years we searched for them. Everywhere but where they were. At the time we had no way of knowing that monsters and animals could recognize what people could not. And so, after three years the sisters were presumed dead. All who knew of them grieved for them. All except the two brothers who were not brothers. But they were so unpleasant that no one found it suspicious."

Mathias drew in a deep shuddering breath before slowly releasing it and continuing, "During that time and for seven years after the sisters were subject to the two men's every whim and desire. In those ten years the three of them bore a combined nine merlings."

"They were bound to make a mistake eventually however. And after a decade they did. One day they simply did not seal the cave quite right. The mothers were still tied securely, but the merlings were not. The seven eldest managed to enlarge the opening enough that the four year old managed to slip out."

"Whenever the two mermen were gone the three mothers would take turns telling the merlings how to find the nearest temple and call their grandfather. It was very nearly the only thing they taught them. It took less than a fortnight for the young merling to make it to the temple, and a few days more for the temple to be completely empty. Once the little one felt sure that the temple was empty they went in and called their grandfather."

"Neptune was able to immediately fetch his daughters and grandchildren. And presumably the two mermen, as they were never heard from again."

"Neptune wanted to punish all of the merfolk for the transgressions of the two mermen. But his daughters had many friends amongst the pods. And so, begged him to give mermaids who might otherwise be harmed by their men blessings instead," Mathias couldn't help but have a bitterly sarcastic tone when speaking the last sentence.

With a soft huff, Mathias shook his head and got back into his story teller's cadence, "The first sister asked for a blessing of fidelity. So that when a couple forms a mating bond they could not look at another in such a way, and their scents would cling to each other, so that all would know that they're mated. Never minding the fact that most of the ‘infidelity’ they witnessed was actually done by homosexual couples who were splitting two nests."

Clara opened her mouth before closing it with a click.

Hearing her teeth click together, Mathias suppressed a giggle. He could guess what question she might have right now. It was not something his mind had yet gotten around to pondering before, but it was really getting between his scales now that his mind had turned to it.

Trying to banish the distracting thoughts for now Mathias plunged on, "The second sister asked her father to bless the mermaids with obedience. Meaning any command spoken by a mermaid to a merman or significantly weaker mermaid will be obeyed instantly," his voice grew weak on the last couple of words. He allowed himself to tremble for a moment or two. Then he clenched his hands and breathed deeply, so that he could finish the thought, "Completely ignoring the fact that mermen and mermaids used to be really good at co-operating."

"The third sister asked that the mermaids be blessed with safety. So that any merman who hurt a mermaid would immediately and relentlessly be attacked by all surrounding merfolk, until they felt the pain a thousand fold. Seemingly ignorant of the fact that sometimes safety means experiencing a little pain."

"It is not believed that the sisters knew what the blessings would do to us. Neptune however surely knew how much suffering these blessings would bring."

"The only warning we got was the nine merlings showing up in nine different pods. The youngest two could not even form full sentences, so they weren't even a little warning."

"And still it was not until many mermen had died that we finally went to Neptune and begged to have his blessings removed. However he told us that unless one of us suffered more than his three daughters. Then none of us would be free of the blessings. Or unless his daughters came and requested it."

"The sisters were no longer in the seas. We tried the temples of the goddesses. None of them even showed. Feeling abandoned ourselves. We abandoned the temples and refused to worship any god until the blessings are lifted. Until then, we simply live as best we can."

After Mathias finished they sat there in silence for several long minutes before Clara spoke up, "So how did we fuck?"

Mathias burst into hysterical laughter. Causing Clara to give him an askance look. Every time he seemed to be calming down, he'd look at Clara and be set off again. Finally Clara harrumphed and rolled her eyes as she covered his eyes with her little hands.

"Just keep your eyes closed until you've spit it out," she scolded him in gruff amusement.

After tittering and giggling a bit more, he finally calmed down enough to say contritely, "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Letting go of his face, Clara shrugged and said wryly, "Shit, you probably just needed to laugh."

Blushing, Mathias shrugged and mumbled, "Maybe."

Clearing his throat and rubbing his hands on his tail he did his best to answer her question, "I'm not really sure how we were able to...fuck. Only thing I can think of is either the bond didn't form properly because I was unwilling. Which I doubt, because I can still smell her stink on me. Or more likely, it's as simple as you're not a mermaid."

He paused for a moment embarrassed before mumbling, "I mean I can still masturbate to anything if I wanted."

Snickering, she opened her mouth to make a dirty joke when the full impact of what he said hit her. Clara stared at him in slack jawed horror as all the times he'd pressed his nose into her made a new horrible kind of sense. "You mean... Your rapist's scent is always following you around?" she asked in a terrified whisper.

Slumping slightly, he let out a sigh like, "Yes." Not wanting to think about it anymore Mathias shook himself and asked, "So, anymore questions about the story?"

Giving him a sad smile, Clara admitted, "Yes, tons. But I have more urgent things to discuss before the sun sets.

Chapter 7

Mathias was on the one hand relieved that the subject was being changed. While on the other hand feeling trepidation at it being changed to something more urgent. "Umm, okay," he said nervously while fiddling with her feathers, "lay it on me."

Momentarily distracted, Clara craned her head around to watch his hands. After a moment or two she asked him bemusedly, "Are all mermen this touchy?"

Blushing brightly, Mathias yanked his hands away. "Sorry," he said contritely before answering her question, "I think so. To some extent or other that is."

Seeing his fingers start to nervously trace and drum over his own scales, Clara chuckled and reassured him, "I don't mind, I was just curious." Then, she leaned closer to his ear and whispered, "And if you straighten and smooth my feathers from the base to the tip. I'll probably like it."

Giving her a surprisingly shy smile, he went back to fiddling with her feathers again, only this time with more purpose. His fingers sunk into the delightfully soft down to find the bases of the silky smooth feathers and glide up to the tips. At first he found it soothing, but soon his nerves arose once again and he prompted her anxiously, "So?"

Clara shook her head, the blissful half smile on her face melting into something a bit grumpier as she muttered, "Oh, right. I can't just enjoy being groomed. I got important shit to talk about." Finally spotting the anxious look on his face she quickly reassured him, "It's nothing bad, it's just important and urgent."

Relaxing a bit, Mathias gave her a small encouraging smile and said, "Okay, I'm listening."

"Ah. Right... So, yeah... Anyways!" Clara stumbled along as she tried to figure out how to start. Finally she let out an aggrieved sigh and grumbled, "I don't know how to start. How do you do it?"

"Oh!" Mathias exclaimed and furrowed his brows before saying thoughtfully, "I'd either start with what is most pertinent, or at the beginning."

Clara frowned in concentration and muttered, "Pertinent, pertinent, what does that mean?" Then as Mathias was opening his mouth to explain she plowed on, "Nevermind, not important right now."

Chuckling softly, Mathias closed his mouth and waited patiently while she mumbled on, "Beginning, beginning... What is the beginning? ... Was it when we fought and fucked? But he already knows about that, he just needs to know why that's important... Maybe that's what pertinent means?"

Once her disjointed mumbling came to an end, Clara brightened up and focused on Mathias' amused yet attentive face. Clearing her throat she told him cheerfully, "Harpies have a hard time conceiving."

Mathias quirked an eyebrow at the contrast of her cheerful tone and the serious subject. Clara however happily continued, "The biggest problem is we need to have a hard fight and then fuck, or a sound defeat and then be fucked. But humans are the ones most likely to do such things and they're so weak..."

Clara scowled at nothing for a moment before giving the bemused merman a smile and continuing, "And even when we do get a good fight and fuck, it doesn't always happen."

During a lengthy pause where she seemed to be trying to figure out what to say next, Mathias furrowed his brows and asked worriedly, "What would this mean for our offspring?"

Clara worried at her lower lip before admitting softly, "I'm not sure. Harpies always lay eggs. Which means that most of our babies are harpy chicks. Dragon and lizardfolk also lay eggs. Dragon eggs are hard like harpy eggs but they're shaped different. Lizardfolk eggs are shaped like harpy eggs but they're more leather-like. And when we hatch a clutch with either only half our clutch is harpy eggs. But..." she trailed off and eyed him a bit worriedly before hesitantly continuing, "I've never heard of a harpy and merman sharing a clutch. So, I don't know what might happen."

Mathias thoughtfully looked towards his nest as he slowly spoke, "Mermaid eggs are completely round, encased within a very thin membrane, and hatch within three months. Another way of describing them would be, gelatinous, pearlescent spheres."

Clara followed his line of sight with her own, and hmmed softly before she shrugged her wings and remarked, "Unlikely then. But we won't know unless it happens."

Clara stroked his ear to draw his attention back to her. With a bittersweet smile she said to him, "If I'm not back tomorrow, it means I've conceived and will not be moving far from my nest for the next two years."

Feeling a little lost, Mathias let out a soft, "Oh." Before he pushed himself to say, "That's a little longer than mermen are bound to their nesting grounds."

Clara rubbed her cheek on the top of his head and spoke reassuringly, "Someone will be here for you. I'll make sure of it."

Sighing softly, he reached up to caress her cheek. "Thank you," he murmured guiltily. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he attempted to continue, "It's just... It's just..."

Listening to him stall out, Clara gently supplied, "You shouldn't need a stranger's help?"

"Yeah," Mathias agreed shakily before he asked, "Why're you helping me?"

"Because I don't like the thought of anyone being abandoned on a nest to starve. Besides, haven't you ever helped a stranger?" Clara asked him curiously.

"Well yeah," he responded brightly before continuing darkly, "But the elders and especially the Pod Leader reprimanded me for how much I helped him."

Clara stiffened up and asked in a voice filled with suppressed fury, "What does reprimand mean?"

Mathias smiled and leaned against her happily inhaling her scent, at that moment more than at any other feeling like he'd gained a new ally. Cheered up a bit he did his best to soothe her, "Reprimand basically means a public official scolding."

Partially mollified, Clara relaxed and asked, "When you can travel and inform them of what happened to you, what will they do to your rapist?"

Deflating, Mathias looked down and responded in a flat empty tone of voice, "The Pod Leader is grooming Chloe to take her place. So, they will likely do nothing."

At these words Clara stiffened right back up and ground her teeth together as her feathers puffed out. After several minutes of failing to control her anger she screeched to the sky, "I WILL REPRIMAND THEIR FUCKING GUTS OUT!!"

Not realizing how deadly serious she was, Mathias started giggling which quickly turned to laughter. Then as he was turning his head to look up at her, Clara crashed her lips into his. Soon enough all other thoughts fled their heads as their tongues eagerly explored each other's mouths. Mathias gripped her neck with his left hand in such a way that his thumb rested in front of her right ear and his claws snagged on her feather-like hair. Meanwhile Clara's small talon-like hands played over his neck and shoulders.

Eventually, she moved her right hand over his mouth as she pulled her face away from his. She opened her lips to speak only to let out a pleasure filled moan, distracted yet again this time by him sucking on her palm, right near the base of her fingers. Smirking against her hand he flicked his tongue out between her index and middle fingers and started licking roughly where the two connected.

"Goddess," she whimpered out softly, as she tried to gather her thoughts while his tongue found erogenous zones on her hand that she didn't know existed. Shaking her head she finally panted out, "Would you...be willing...to do this...stuff with... Oh Goddess... My flock mates?"

Pulling back Mathias blinked in surprise. Clara caressed the underside of his lip as he tried to think through his murky lust-addled brain. "Um," he finally supplied, "As long as no jealousy, or judgmental elders are involved, sure."

"So, non-judgy elders are fine?" she teased and swooped back on to his lips. Mathias groaned his approval as she focused her tongue on the very sensitive roof of his mouth. Shifting his left hand a little he fisted it in her hair as he happily caressed her tongue with his own.

Mathias quickly found himself fighting the instinct to pull her close and wrap himself around her, so that he could plunge his penis into her depths. Pulling himself back he moaned out, "Clara, it's not... It's not..."

Nipping his neck, she cooed questioningly, "It's not what, darling Mathias?"

Shuddering, he tilted his head to allow her better access. When she nibbled her way up to his ear he finally managed to groan out, "Safe for us to coil together here."

Chapter 8

Startled, Clara held still, which is when she noticed an odd splashing sound. She trailed her gaze down his body towards the sound with a brief pause on the cock jutting out of his slit, continuing onto where the lower half of his tail was splashing in and out of the water as it tried to coil around something that wasn't there.

"Definitely more energetic than last time," she murmured absentmindedly, causing Mathias to blush halfway down his chest as he tried to regain full control of his tail.

Pulling her gaze back to his cock once more, Clara let out a throaty chuckle and cooed out lustily, "Mathias darling, lay back."

Flustered, Mathias stammered, "B-but slippery t-top, an-and j-jagged be-below!"

Gazing into his eyes, Clara grinned impishly and said as soothingly as she could with such an expression on her face, "Trust me? Lay back, prop yourself up on your elbows, hold as still as you can and watch."

Gulping, Mathias nodded worriedly and slowly did as instructed. Clara took advantage by trailing kisses and nibbles down his body as he moved, her wings slowly flaring out for balance as she traveled down with him. Every touch caused him to twitch and let out a small breathless sound of pleasure.

Mathias watched with expectant curiosity as Clara shifted over his penis, her hands landing a bit above and below it to aid her balance. As she crouched sideways to him she studied his cock for a moment before murmuring huskily, "It looks about as thick as a duck's egg. But I'm not sure how to describe the shape." The pad of her thumb glided along the topside of his member, which pressed into the sensation as he gasped.

She continued speaking with a smirk, "I mean the top is completely straight and smooth, but then it's like someone stuck a stick into a cone and held it out straight. Clara ran the upper side of her index talon just below where his little cone head flared out the most. Mathias shuddered hard, his arms almost slipped as the little head pressed down into the sensation and his tail made a loud splash.

Clara placed her hand back above his cock and grinned at him as she eagerly asked, "Does this ever get stuck in anything?"

Mathias stared at her wide eyed and breathless until he caught his breath enough to answer, "It does get harder the longer I'm aroused. So, I always make sure to make love as quickly as I can."

Tsking, she shook her head and muttered, "When you can come to the beach again we'll have to change that." Then, before he could respond she leaned down and sucked the head of his cock into her mouth.

When his cock suddenly surged into her mouth without his body moving she pulled off with a cough and asked in astonishment, "Did it just get longer?"

At the same time, he gasped and asked while making a visible effort to hold still, "How're you so hot inside?"

Smirking, she answered, "Birds are warmer than mammals which are warmer than you." Then she kissed teasingly at his tip.

"Do it again?" he said in a throaty growl. But she merely shook her head and looked at him expectantly between her gentle teasing kisses, until he got the hint and answered her question with a gasping groan, "It emerges fully when it finds a tight tunnel." Only then did she gleefully suck him back into her mouth.

Feeling how firm his tip had already gotten, she didn't even try to get him down her throat. Instead, she bobbed her head up and down sucking on what would fit in her mouth, as her tongue traced and rubbed on his exotically shaped head while her lower hand moved up to help stroke the rest of his length. Her eyes drifted shut as she got used to and even somewhat enjoyed the highly salty taste of his precum.

Shuddering, he moaned out wordless encouragements as he kept his eyes fixed on the image of her sucking and jerking him off. The only thing keeping him from getting lost in the sensation was the need to hold still. Even so, his hands pressed into the boulder top, claws clicking arhythmically against it, his tail still occasionally thrashing and splashing.

At last, he came with a nearly soundless cry of pleasure. His torso and upper tail froze up while his lower tail jerked hard enough to splash them both.

And it came so suddenly that Clara was unprepared and struggled to swallow his cum. Halfway through she had to pull off or choke. One spurt hit her on the face while the rest landed on Mathias' chest and belly. As soon as it ended Mathias went completely limp. That is, until his head loudly smacked into the boulder top.

Yelping in pain, he quickly sat back up to gingerly probe at the back of his head.

Squawking in surprise, Clara stared at him in aghast worry as she said anxiously, "Oh shit! Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Mathias said cautiously, "It's just a little sore. My brain isn't singing and there are no dancing lights, so I should be fine."

"Well that's good," she said relieved, before asking, "Is anything else hurt?"

Mathias carefully twisted his back and examined his arms before he said calmly, "I might bruise but nothing seems to be bl..." Mid word he caught sight of her face and started snickering.

At first she gave him a baffled look, and then she remembered what was on her face. Rolling her eyes she tried to wipe the sticky cum off her face as she said sarcastically, "Oh har dee har har. You know you have some on you too, right?"

Squeaking, he touched his face before looking down. Spotting the streaks of cum he tried to wipe them off only to spread them around. Perplexed, he poked at it and said, "It's so..." Pursing his lips he searched for the right word before he said questioningly, "Sticky?"

Taking her turn to snicker at him, she gave up on cleaning her face for now as she playfully teased him, "You sound like you've never seen your own cum before."

He held his hand in front of his face pressing his fingers together and pulling them apart, fascinated by the way the skin kept trying to stick together. "I've only ever seen it in the water before," he replied absently before he returned his attention to his companion.

Blushing, Mathias shyly brought up the cause of the sticky situation, "That was amazing." He hesitated a minute contemplating his teeth and claws as Clara beamed eagerly at him. Finally deciding that Clara would know what she was doing he asked in a near whisper, "Is there anything similar I can do?"

Somehow her smile got even wider as she eagerly said, "I was hoping you'd ask!" She eyed his position critically before saying contemplatively, "You might want to scoot back a little bit." Mathias had only wiggled backwards a few inches before she grinned at him and said, "That'll probably work!"

Then she shuffled around until her back was to him. Once she was in position she bent over, her wings again flared for balance, her arms too short to reach the boulder stayed tucked up. Her tail tilted up and to the side, revealing a damp whirl of feathers just below it. "Now part the feathers below my tail," Clara eagerly said.

Mathias parted them, revealing a patch of rosey skin with two closed openings, one above the other and a V of raised skin. The V was framing the second opening, at the base of the V was a protruding bump.

As Mathias parted the feathers she continued, "The tighter hole just below my tail is my ass hole, leave it alone today."

"Today?" Mathias muttered in confusion as he gazed at her nethers. That one word implying that she would want stuff done to it later. And if an ass hole is what he thought it was then Mathias couldn't understand why.

Smirking, Clara continued, "Below that is a slightly looser hole that is leaking arousal all over my feathers. That's my cunt, we'll get back to that in a minute."

Finally enlightened, Mathias blurted out, "so that's what cunt means!" Only to blush and squirm in embarrassment when his outburst caused Clara to laugh.

Chuckling still, Clara decided to forgo teasing him in favor of getting his tongue on her sooner. In a hurry to finish her explanation Clara said, "Just below that is a fleshy bump, that's my clit. A human would have it spaced a bit further away because of their piss hole but harpies are too efficient for that. Now I want you to lean in and explore my clit with that tongue of yours." As he bent over Mathias wondered if that little bump just inside a mermaid's cloacal slit was a clit or something else.

Clara had not told him to scoot back far enough, but his torso was much more flexible than she was expecting. So while he looked uncomfortable with his torso bent in a steep sideways U shape, he didn't even notice.

He started off by brushing his nose against her cunt and inhaling her damp musty scent. Clara let out a soft breathless needy sound as she fidgeted in anticipation. Mathias grabbed her hips to hold her still and licked tentatively at her clit. Encouraged by the soft noises she made he repeatedly dragged his tongue up along the outside of the V and down along the inside. Clara moaned wantonly and futily tried to wiggle her hips, trying to get his tongue where she wanted it, but he kept his tongue right where he wanted it.

Once her moans started to sound desperate he pressed his tongue to her clit and wiggled it, setting off a screaming fit of pleasure. Before she could calm down from that, he wrapped the tip of his tongue around her little nub and rhythmically tugged and pressed it. Which set off a chain reaction of loud cries and shaky limbs leading to him gripping her harder and scratching her slightly. Which only set her off harder. When her wings started an offbeat flapping, Mathias pulled back and asked breathlessly, "Are you okay?"

Clara cried out in flustered arousal, "Fucking Venus Mathias! Fuck my fucking cunt with your fucking tongue!"

Mathias was taken aback for half a moment. Then he grinned cheekily and dove in to do as she so eloquently requested. He slid his tongue in, getting his first clean taste of her tangy and slightly spicy arousal. He made a small sound of pleasure and rolled his tongue into a tube with the rough side of his tongue facing out so he could fully feel her walls. As he slid his tongue in and out of her slick passage, he rubbed his chin against her clit. The only thing that kept her from grinding back onto his face and possibly injuring one or both of them on his very sharp teeth was the firm grip he kept on her hips.

When Clara started shuddering and her cries changed to joyful squealing, the only thing that held her up was Mathias' grip. Mathias himself grunted and held still when her tunnel clamped down and spasmed on his tongue.

As soon as she calmed down, he shifted his grip so he could pull her jelly legged form into his arms as he sat up. Pulling her back to his chest, he rested his chin on her shoulder and asked softly, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Chuckling briefly, she replied hoarsely, "I've never cum so much in my life."

With a shy smile he nuzzled her neck and whispered, "I haven't had a day half as good as this in a long time."

"I'm sure more good days are ahead of you!" she reassured him brightly. To which he merely smiled sadly, unable to find such optimism within himself.

Gazing out to the horizon, he sighed upon noticing the purplish pink blush starting to creep into the skyline. "It looks like it's time for you to go," he said glumly.

Gazing at the colors bleeding into the sky, she said dazedly, "It is. Can you help me to my feet?" Nodding, he helped her slip out of his lap and on to her feet, then continued to lend her support until she was steady.

As he was trying to figure out how to say goodbye Clara asked him, "Shall I bring you another deer tomorrow?"

With a start, Mathias shook his head and replied, "Uh, no. I won't be able to eat a big meal like that for at least a few days. Just something somewhere between... umm... half the size of our snack and twice the size would be really good."

Grinning, Clara nodded and said cheerfully, "Got it! Now you might want to get in the water before I take off."

Wiggling back into the water, Mathias returned her smile and said, "Thank you, and good night Clara."

Waving, she replied just before he slipped beneath the waves, "My pleasure, and good night Mathias."

Chapter 9

The next morning, as had become normal for Mathias, he woke up screaming and immediately set to mindlessly circling his nest as the flashback continued. Only this time, right when he started moving the eggs in his flashback, his physical path deviated.

Instead of continuing to circle his eggs, he subconsciously sought help by frantically swimming to the top of the boulder. Mathias didn't become aware of his surroundings until he landed chest first on his destination. He laid there clinging confusedly as he panted and trembled in the aftermath.

Coming to his senses enough to start properly comprehending the world around him, he softly said, "Owie..." as he rolled onto his back and felt over his chest.

"Did I... jump to get here?" he grumbled to himself. Wincing as he poked a tender spot he sighed and rubbed his face as he thought over the situation, 'The way my chest feels I must have. But nothing is broken so I doubt I jumped very high.'

Mathias sat up with another sigh and looked around, unable to keep from feeling disappointed that he could spot no one in the predawn air. 'But,' he reasoned, 'she wanted to get home before the sun set, so maybe they can't fly in the dark.' Reassuring himself, he slipped back into the water and went to tend his eggs.

~~~~~

Around midmorning a large shadow circled near him before moving towards the boulder. Mathias perked up and quickly swam over with a smile on his face.

He observed the blob as he got closer to the surface. The brown of the blob wasn't as dark as he remembered and the pink was a bit closer to tan than the pink of yesterday. So he slowly poked his head above the water, leaving just the upper half of his head exposed as he cautiously examined the new harpy. She looked similar enough to Clara that they were likely closely related, and she had some sort of brown strap going from her right shoulder to her left hip that she was fiddling nervously with.

After a long uneasy moment, she cleared her throat and said, "Uh, hi... Mathias, right?" He nodded mutely in agreement and she sighed in relief before continuing, "I'm Clara's sister, Cora."

Suddenly, she hopped back and said defensively before he could properly react, "Go ahead and laugh."

With a slight frown, he rested his hands on the boulder and pushed himself up until his shoulders were exposed. "Why would I laugh?" he asked in puzzlement.

Giving him a wary look, she stiffly said, "Because Cora means virginal maiden."

"I'm aware," Mathias agreed dryly.

"Harpies are stereotyped as sex crazed," Cora continued just as stiffly.

Mathias blinked and tilted his head to the side, thinking as he slowly spoke, "I was not aware. But, what's wrong with being a sex crazed virgin?"

Cora stared at him slack jawed for half a beat before she started giggling and exclaimed, "I'm starting to see why Clara likes you so much!" Mathias gave her a small hopeful smile.

They stared at each other for a minute before Cora asked uncertainly, "Um, are you going to come up?"

Mathias tugged nervously at his ear and said while eyeing the exposed rock, "Uh yeah. I mean, not as much of the top is exposed so it should be easier to get up. But you're right in the middle?" he ended his sentence in a querying tone and then mumbled, "I don't know how close you'd be comfortable with me getting."

"Ah, sorry," she said before shuffling leftwards to the edge of the water and continuing, "I wouldn't mind you getting close." She gave him a cheeky grin and told him cheerfully, "You do after all have the Clara seal of approval."

Mathias was sure that she wasn't talking about an animal. So he chuckled and asked as he wiggled and pushed himself up beside her, "What's that?"

Shrugging, she tried again as he turned over and sat up, "You have Clara's official stamp of approval?" When he continued to give her a mystified look, she shook her head with a smile saying, "It's a playful way of saying that Clara really approves of you."

Smiling bashfully he said, "Ah, well, I really like Clara too."

Cora smirked and started tugging up on the strap wrapped around her torso and asked, "Are you ready to eat?"

He nodded and hummed an agreeable, "Mmhmm," as he curiously watched her pull the opening of her cross body messenger bag within reach.

She rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a wooden spoon. Holding it out to him she said, "Here, hol..." Spotting his chest she trailer off. Realizing that those bruises could not have been obtained in the activities her sister had described she asked in a small sad voice, "What happened?"

Following her gaze, he looked down at his chest and spotted the large round red mark in the center of his chest and the blotchy spots radiating out from it. He blinked in surprise, the pain had all but faded hours ago, so he hadn't realized how banged up he looked.

Looking back up, he shrugged and took the shaped stick out of her hand before she could drop it as he said, "I'm not sure. It's something I did in my sleep." Giving her a smile he quickly reassured her, "It doesn't really hurt anymore though."

"In your sleep..." she said in a faint fretful voice.

Sighing, she gave her whole body a shake, as if to shove the bad mood away. Settling her feathers, Cora held her hands out and said, "Give me your hand and let me teach you how to use the spoon."

Mathias tilted his head and gave her the hand with the spoon. Then he obediently allowed her to position his fingers on the spoon, and to move him through the proper wrist motions for scooping and holding.

"There! All ready to eat," she said brightly. Mathias gave Cora a skeptical look before looking dubiously at the spoon. "Yes I know it feels awkward," she said soothingly, "But you'll have more control that way."

"Okay," he said, nodding his head in cautious encouragement. It did feel awkward, but mostly he didn't understand how this spoon related to food.

Cora reached into her bag with both hands and did something before lifting a clay crock with a few wisps of steam rising from it out of the bag. She then moved closer and settled down so that their heads were closer to the same height.

"Now it might still be hot, so you'll need to blow on each bite to cool it down," she warned him quickly, having clearly been warned herself how incautious he could be about food. "You're also not used to using a spoon so you'll want to lean over the crock as you eat," she instructed him.

Mathias nodded as he looked into the vessel at the lumpy brown stuff. 'It looks like dirt,' he thought. 'Dirt isn't completely awful to eat though. And it smells good. Unlike dirt.'

Noting the contemplative look on his face, Cora eagerly told him, "It's steamed grains and organ meat gravy! Go ahead, dig in."

"I do like organ meat," Mathias murmured as he scooped up a spoonful. But when he pursed his lips and blew on it, it all wound up on Cora's smiling face.

Upon seeing the mess he made, Mathias got wide eyed and squeaked as he hastily apologized, "Oh, barnacles! I'm so sorry!"

Cora blinked in surprise a few times before she chuckled and licked her lips clean. "It's alright," she reassured him, "just blow more gently."

Mathias watched in a bit of a daze as her pink tongue licked over her lips. As soon as she finished speaking he leaned in and licked her face clean.

Blushing a bright red, she waited for him to pull away to murmur, "Or you could just do that I suppose."

Blushing faintly himself, Mathias sheepishly offered an apology, "Sorry."

Chuckling, she shook her head and flashed him a bright smile. "If I minded I would have objected," she cheerfully chirped.

Smiling shyly, Mathias went back to eating. It was more difficult to eat this way than he liked, but the food was really tasty and the chewy texture of the meat chunks and steamed grains were really fun. He did blow too hard a few more times, not always entirely on accident, since they both liked his cleanup method. He was also a messy eater, which gave Cora the opportunity to return the favor. Mathias secretly thought that Cora was pretty incompetent at it, but he suspected that it was on purpose, so he didn't correct how she licked him. By the time he finished eating they were both flushed and a little breathless and the tip of his penis was just barely visible.

Highly flustered, Cora tucked the crock and spoon into her bag, secured the opening and tugged down on the strap to pull her bag around to her back. As she was tugging she cleared her throat and distractedly asked, "Can mermaid eggs be exposed to air?"

Completely distracted from any sexy thoughts, Mathias moved his gaze up from her vaguely jiggly chest to her inquisitive face.

Frowning in concentration, he thought it over seriously before saying, "I suppose a few seconds in the air wouldn't hurt them. Just as long as nothing dry, sharp or overly rough touches them."

Tucking her little arms back under her wings, she hummed contemplatively for a moment before she asked, "So, a human with soft damp hands to catch the egg and place it in a bucket of sea water would work?"

Nodding he replied, "You're going to want to put something soft in the bottom of the bucket as well. Something like seaweed, or sponge, or fine sand."

"Hmm," she asked thoughtfully, "would cloth work?"

"Cloth?" he asked uncertainly, "Is that what sailors and fishermen wear?" At her nod, he looked thoughtful and then smiled. "Yeah I think that would work," he replied, and then he had a sudden thought, "Oh! You should have the human catching the egg have wet sea lettuce in hand. Seaweed is slightly slimy and so would reduce the risk of the egg sticking to anything."

Cora looked startled for a moment and then laughed and asked, "What seaweed would you recommend for the bucket?"

Without the least bit of hesitation, he automatically answered, "Bladderwrack, sea grapes, or something similar. Although you'll need to anchor the bladderwrack and many similar seaweeds."

Cora snickered and lightly teased him, "Such a quick answer!"

Mathias smiled bashfully and replied, "Well if I had access to either, they're what I would have lined my nest with."

Cora grew thoughtful for a few moments before she brought up her next concern, "How often do you need to eat a deer sized meal?"

Mathias furrowed his brow and fiddled with the skin on his stomach as he hesitantly answered, "Normally every seven to ten days. However with as much weight as I've lost I should probably be eating that much once every three days until I've put most of that weight back on."

She "Hmmed," thoughtfully and asked, "So, day after tomorrow then?"

Mathias smiled guiltily and said softly, "If it's not too much trouble."

Smirking at him, she replied mischievously, "Oh, I'm sure you can find some way to repay me if it is troublesome. Like with a story," mid sentence her voice shifted to a more lusty tone, "or something else."

Cora chuckled as he blushed. Then, feeling a dampness seeping through her feathers to her skin she abruptly stood and turn her head to an unnatural looking degree to look at her tail. Seeing how soaked her tail had gotten she exclaimed in distress, "My tail is wet and the tide is still coming in!"

Mathias worriedly wondered, 'Should I get in the water and give her more room.' But before he could offer she had turned around presenting her tail to him.

"Can you squeeze some of the water out of them?" she asked fretfully.

Looking over the large dripping feathers, he murmured, "I'll try." With a frown of concentration, he took a feather into his hands and tried the grooming motions that Clara had taught him the evening before. Watching the water move ahead of his fingers he let out a sigh of relief and continued until he couldn't squeeze out anymore. "That's as much as I can do," he finally said.

Cora had watched him the whole time, which kinda made Mathias' neck hurt whenever he noticed how long she'd been holding her neck turned to such a degree, because not even merfolk could turn their necks that far. She flashed him a smile and shook her still slightly damp tail as she declared, "Perfect! I should be able to fly now."

Smiling, he slid into the water giving her the entirety of the rapidly shrinking dry spot. Resting a hand on the boulder to keep himself steady. He gazed up at her and said gratefully, "Thank you for the food and company."

Giving him a gentle smile, she replied, "It was fun. I'll try to get here earlier tomorrow though."

Grinning now, he said cheerfully, "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Nodding, she turned towards him and waved, responding cheerfully herself, "I'll see you later!"

With a little wave of his own, he slipped beneath the waves and back to his nest.

Chapter 10

Around midafternoon, Mathias noticed two shadows circle overhead and fly towards the boulder. There had been no mention of anyone coming by again today, so Mathias swam over with curious trepidation.

He did not see the shadows fly off, so when he got near the surface and saw no blobby form awaiting him, he worried about what might be on the rock. Taking a deep steadying breath of water, he stealthily pushed himself out of the water to find... To find a wooden bucket was sitting in the middle of the boulder top.

Sighing in relief, Mathias baffledly muttered, "Well that was anticlimactic." He looked up even further to scan the sky. In the distance, he spotted two gray forms rapidly moving towards the shore. Mathias shrugged and thought, 'I'll try to bring it up with Cora in the morning.'

His attention then turned back to the bucket as he wondered why they set it there and left, 'Is it full of dismembered people. Or maybe there is a tiny monster inside that will jump out at me when I get close. Maybe it's from the harpies and it's food or a mermaid egg. But then why would they leave it and go?' His brow furrowed as he stared anxiously at the bucket.

Unable to come up with an answer, he groaned and rubbed his face. His curiosity eventually won out over his fear, so he nervously and cautiously wiggled and pulled himself up beside the bucket.

Looking inside, he was befuddled to find it full of bladderwrack. Thinking that there might be an egg inside he carefully parted the weeds, but all he found was bladderwrack. More confused than anything else, but unwilling to take chances he removed each piece one by one and thoroughly examined them before setting them between himself and the bucket. Finding nothing off about the bladderwrack he then picked up the bucket and gave it a thorough examination as well.

Finally, he shrugged and muttered in exasperation, "I don't know!" Shoving the seaweed back in the bucket he thought it over once more, 'Well I told Cora that I like to line my nest with these. But then why didn't they stick around? Maybe they're really busy. Or maybe they're simply not as sociable as Clara and Cora.'

Sighing, he shrugged once more and reassured himself as he leaned over and set the bucket to floating, "I'll ask Cora about it tomorrow." Mathias gave the makeshift vessel a shove and waited for it to be far enough away that he wouldn't flood it while getting down. Then he splashed into the water. Grabbing the bucket he quickly flipped and dragged it under, using the air pocket in the bucket and the air bladders that bladderwrack was named for to keep them contained while he swam to his nest.

Once there, he hooked the bucket handle on a protruding branch of coral and carefully juggled his eggs with his tailfin while he methodically planted the weeds in the dirt and secured them to the skeletal coral. The bladderwrack gave his nest a faint semblance of life. But even this was enough to brighten the atmosphere up.

Smiling happily, he gently settled his eggs amongst the natural seaweed balloons, then he tilted the bucket to let the air bubble out of it and wedged it in next to his nest.

~~~~~

The next day began much as the previous had, including Mathias landing chest first on the boulder. Then as she promised, Cora showed up an hour after the sun had fully risen.

Seeing him near the surface, Cora quickly shuffled to the side so that Mathias could more easily climb up. Noticing how gingerly he moved and the new bruises on top of old, she frowned and muttered worriedly, "Whatever you're doing in your sleep, you need to figure out how to stop it."

Giving her a sheepish smile, he set the bucket down beside her as he softly reassured, "I'm trying."

"Good," she told him sternly as she pulled her bag around so that she could fetch him the spoon and food. "It's the same thing as yesterday," she told him apologetically as she shuffled closer and crouched down to his level. "Clara is kinda going to be in hungry demon mode until she finishes laying eggs. Which means no variety for anyone else either," she explained.

Nodding, he asked anxiously before he started to eat, "Is she okay? How long will it take her to lay the eggs?"

Grinning at Mathias, Cora said confidently, "She's happy, just always hungry. It takes three days to lay an egg and she could lay anything from one to twelve. Most likely between four and eight though."

Mathias let out a relieved sigh as he carefully ate. He still didn't like eating with a spoon, but if asked he would admit that it was slightly easier than the day before, in that he finished a little faster and with slightly less of a mess. The down side was that it also meant slightly less mutual teasing.

Finishing, he dropped the spoon in the crock. Then as she tucked the crock away he spotted a grain that had somehow gotten on her nipple. After teasing each other through the meal he wasn't thinking particularly straight. So, he leaned in and licked the grain off before latching his lips onto the protruding nub.

Letting out a small sound of pleasure, she allowed herself to enjoy the moment as she put away the crock and repositioned her bag. Then regretfully she tugged at his ear to draw his attention to her words as she huskily said, "I don't have as much time to spend on this as I'd like."

Straightening up, he blushed scarlet and put his hand over his penis that was doing a bit more than peeking out today. "Ah, sorry," he mumbled in apology.

Smirking, she glanced at his concealing hand and placed a brief kiss on his lips before gently teasing him, "Never apologize for being sexy."

"Alright," he said bashfully, as he glanced at her lips and then away again fidgeting as he tried to remember what he wanted to ask her. But all he could think of was how soft her lips were and how squishy her nipple was.

Until finally, he spotted the bucket that he had brought back up. "Oh, yeah!" he abruptly said, interrupting her examination of her tail. "Did you send someone to bring me a bucket of bladderwrack?" he asked the startled harpy.

Cora tilted her head and shrugged saying, "Kinda? We sent Iris and Ione out to gather bladderwrack and told them if they got an extra bucketful to bring it to you." At his curious inquiring expressions she continued, "They're a pair of kids our flock adopted. They're really shy even with us, so I'm not surprised you didn't see them."

Mathias blinked in confusion for a moment before exclaiming as a memory hit him, "Oh right! Merfolk are the weird ones who don't name their young."

Looking affronted, Cora sharply asked, "Why don't you name your children?"

Chuckling, Mathias shook his head and replied sardonically, "Well, I didn't even know I was male until two years ago. So, it would've been rather awkward if my parents had named me Cora when I was a fry only to find out eighteen years later that I was male."

Blushing slightly in embarrassment, she hesitantly agreed, "Well, I guess so. But how do your kids know who is being called?"

"We use nicknames," Mathias cheerfully explained, "When fry first hatch if there is anything unique about them they're nicknamed for that, if not then it's for the order their father saw them in. Like for my clutch we were One, Two, Tiny and Silver. As we grow and our personalities become more apparent our nicknames may change. I stayed Silver as a merling, but my brothers became Rowdy, Sneaky and Cuddles."

Cora glanced at the encroaching waves and stood up as she asked, "How come your nickname never changed?"

Smiling nostalgically, he shrugged and gazed out over the waters as he answered, "For the same reason I was called Silver instead of Emerald, all the other appropriate nicknames were already in use by older siblings. Could've been worse though, I have a younger sibling who is still stuck as Tiny."

Smirking, she said, "Ya know..." and then waited for him to look at her to continue, "you're going to have us fighting over the right to challenge you in a year or so."

Laughing, he shook his head and said uncertainly, "I look forward to it?"

"You better!" She mock scolded before shooing him into the water. "I'll bring venison in the morning!" she called out as he slipped into the water.

"Now that, I definitely look forward to," he said in a laughing voice, before he turned and said cheerfully, "See you tomorrow."

Grinning, she said agreeably, "I'll be here as early as I can." After exchanging waves, he sunk into the water so she could take off.

Chapter 11

The morning started out even better than the previous two. Mathias managed to come to his senses midair, so he was able to alter his trajectory and dive back into the water instead of slapping down onto the boulder. Cora found some apples while hunting and so gave him one with the deer.

Clara was getting ready to lay an egg when Cora had gone out that morning, so Cora didn't stick around to accompany Mathias while he ate. But she promised to come back that afternoon and tell him how it went. All in all it was a pretty good start to the day.

It was getting closer to midday and Mathias was still fiddling with the apple. His tail gently oscillated over his eggs, repeatedly releasing and catching the fruit before it could float away while he seriously contemplated what to do with it. 'I could just eat it,' he thought, 'But I might also be able to lure prey in for the fry with it. If I broke it into pieces and hid them about in my scavenging radius then maybe more of those little crabs might come about. But would they then try to invade my nest?'

Mathias held the apple in both hands, so deep in thought that he was very nearly glaring at the innocent fruit when the voice he most dreaded intruded on his thoughts, "What are you staring so intently at?" Startled, Mathias let go of the apple as he looked up into Chloe's admittedly lovely yet oh so detestable face. Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Chloe snatched the mostly red fruit up.

Flinching, Mathias moved the bulk of his tail protectively over the eggs as he vainly tried to control his breathing. "W-w-what?" he stammered breathlessly out as she examined the fruit.

Snorting disdainfully, she glanced at him and scolded, "Stop being such a merling," before asking him pointedly while thrusting the fruit out, "What is this?"

He instinctively knew that lying would be a bad idea, yet he also didn't feel safe telling the full truth either. Flinching away from her rapidly moving hand, he hastened to answer, "It's fr-fruit. The ha-harpies left it." He stammered slightly as he spoke, and looked over his shoulder at the boulder before snapping his gaze back to her. The more he had to speak the less control he had of his breathing.

"Ha-harpies," Chloe muttered mockingly. Glaring at him, she asked grumpily, "Why did I pick such a coward?" Before Mathias could figure out if he needed to answer she popped the apple in her mouth and munched it. Chloe seemed to savor the taste as she chewed. Swallowing, she smirked and told him proudly, "It tastes good, so it must not be poisonous."

Mathias stared incredulously at her and wondered, 'Is her education lacking, or her ability to learn? I mean yeah, I gobbled up my first apple too but it was offered to me as food! Also flavor is not the only indicator of poison.' He once again resolved to take complete charge of his merlings’ education, as well as sincerely hoping that mermaids are indeed sensitive to the poison in apple seeds.

Scoffing at his lack of a proper response, Chloe sighed and gave Mathias what most would view as a gentle smile. To him, however, it just looked chilling and sickening. Mathias shivered and let out a soft fearful whimper as she opened her mouth to brightly chide him, "Oh lighten up! I came to feed you."

Hyperventilating now, Mathias looked around desperately trying to spot something, anything that she might have brought with her. Spotting no such thing he let out a terrified moan and rapidly shook his head as he pathetically whispered, "No, no, no, no..."

Scowling at what she viewed as an extreme overreaction, she crossed her arms making her engorged mammaries more prominent. "Oh come now," she scolded him crossly, "You clearly are not getting enough to eat here."

Her obvious growing anger was alarming so he tried to comply. He started to move towards her only to flinch back in revulsion, unable to force himself to do it. The thought of touching her made his skin crawl. The thought of putting his mouth on her made his stomach cramp. Hugging himself he hunched away from her as he mindlessly pleaded around the lump in his throat, "Please, please no. No, no, please no..."

With a frustrated snarl, Chloe snapped out a command, "Mathias! Suck all the milk out of my breasts."

Mathias choked back a sob as his body stiffly moved to comply. His arms remained wrapped about himself but at least the trembling had mostly stopped due to his body being forced to move. His stomach rolled and cramped as his lips moved to her nipple. Mathias had never vomited before, but from what he'd heard of the sensation, the only thing preventing it was the milk flowing down his throat.

As her engorgement finally eased, Chloe winced and hissed in pain before saying ruefully, "I guess it's a good thing I had to command you. I would've hated to be forced to kill you over something so silly."

Mathias glanced up at her in disbelief, before warily averting his eyes once more. Sighing, she grabbed the back of his head to pull him more snugly against herself. Ignoring how he stiffened up and whimpered she grumbled to him, "I don't hate you. In fact I rather admire you. You're so strong, clever, fast and you have a completely different charisma from me. We could make a really good team, if you would just cooperate. I was hoping if I left you alone for a month that you would come to your senses."

She glared down at him whimpering and trying to shrink away from her hand while still obeying the compulsion. Removing her hand from him she gave a frustrated growl and waited for him to go still before she angrily continued, "Obviously that hasn't worked yet. I'll keep coming back once a week to feed you till it does."

Chloe's words were unfortunately not entirely registering with Mathias. He might remember them later but at the moment he could not think past the miseries both physical and mental to comprehend what she was saying. Thankfully she stopped speaking after that and simply waited for him to finish.

The deer he had eaten was long enough ago that it had mostly left his stomach, but it was nowhere near to leaving his guts. So, by the time he finished one side he was more than uncomfortably full. Switching sides he shuddered and whimpered not knowing how he'd manage to swallow another drop. All this got him however was an irritated growl and claw tips in the back of his head as she pulled him into what she considered a more comfortable position.

Once her bosom was finally emptied, Mathias barely managed to move away from her before the pain from his overly full stomach forced him to stop. Mathias let out a distressed groan and closed his eyes as his body started the unpleasant task of relieving the pressure. It began with all of his abdominals clenching as if to pin his guts in place. Within seconds, starting at the bottom of his ribs and rolling up to the top were repeated chest collapsing convulsions which jerked his shoulders along for the ride. The only miserable thought he had to go with the sensations of giant fists pummeling his ribs and the burning liquid traveling up his throat to shoot out of his mouth was, 'Vomiting is worse than I imagined.'

Chloe opened her mouth to speak when he first pulled away. But before she could get a word out his shoulders started jerking so she closed her mouth in bafflement, unsure as to what game he was playing at now. Once the cloud of pink tinged white started spewing out of his mouth she jerked back in surprise. Surprise which rapidly turned into outrage at the sight of him wasting her precious fluids. "You ungrateful wretch!" she screamed as she swung at him.

Her scream was the only warning he had and it wasn't much of one. Knowing that she was right handed he desperately moved to his right while fighting with his rebellious body, trying to stop the vomiting so he could open his eyes. His left cheek got sliced open once more but at least she didn't knock him out this time. Screaming in incoherent rage, she followed after him repeatedly slapping and slicing open his already bruised chest. Once he was able to stop dry heaving and open his eyes he carefully retreated to and coiled protectively over his nest. His torso wiggled amongst his coils as every muscle twitched and quivered with the suppressed desire to defend himself from her angry piercing and slashing blows which continued to land on him.

At last she finished venting her temper and growled a reminder before leaving, "I'll be back in a week. You better fix your attitude by then."

Mathias remained motionless aside from his trembling as she swam away. If he heard her words he showed no sign of it.

Chapter 12

Mathias maintained his defensive posture long after she had left, afraid that Chloe wasn’t really gone. Or that something he was in no shape to fight might show up. For once the desolate coral worked in his favor though, and nothing approached him.

It wasn’t until the scent of sour milk and blood had all but entirely faded that he was able to force himself to move. Mathias painfully uncoiled himself and looked around wearily. Unable to detect any lingering or approaching danger, he turned his shaky body towards the boulder and slowly, with many a stop along the way, swam towards its perceived safety.

With both hands on the boulder he pushed himself up the last little bit. No sooner did he surface and take a breath of air than he set to coughing. At first he was tempted to slip back into the water but then he remembered his mother’s words, “If you ever breathe something unpleasant, then go breathe air so you can cough it out.” So he held onto the boulder and coughed until he managed to expel several large globs of sickly yellow foam that tasted vaguely of vomit.

He leaned against the boulder and sobbed tearlessly, too spent to climb any higher yet. He closed his eyes to rest just for a minute, only to fall asleep without realizing it. However, it wasn’t long before his body started slipping, immediately and painfully waking him as his wounds rubbed against the rough surface. With a strangled yelp, which set off another brief coughing fit, he jolted back to wakefulness.

Once the unproductive coughing was over he used the tail end of his adrenal surge to thrash painfully onto the boulder, reopening almost all of his wounds in the process. There he curled up as tight as he could. For once in his life wishing that he could live without water. It wasn’t long until he passed out without realizing it once more.

When he was awoken by a strong downdraft, he had no clue how long he’d been out. He was unsuccessfully trying to blink the sleep goop out of his eyes when a noticeable weight settled almost gently onto his scaled hip. He swallowed a pained moan as the taloned creature seemed to be trying to avoid the worst of his wounds.

“Fuck kid, you look like shit,” a gruff feminine voice said sympathetically.

Mathias blinked dumbly at the dark blurry form before he croaked out, “Who?” Which of course sent him into another coughing fit.

Once his cough had died down the… harpy? …on top of him urgently requested, “Can you make a spot for me to hop down?” Mathias shifted his tail, creating a blood streaked clear spot in the middle. Then he felt both of her feet leave him at the same time and a sudden wind as she nimbly flutter-hopped down.

“Is that better?” her concerned voice asked. When he mutely nodded she leaned over and pressed something hard and round to his lips. “It’s a lemon mint candy. You hold it in your mouth and suck slowly and gently,” she explained patiently.

Mathias wrapped his tongue around the candy and drew it into his mouth. It was equal parts sweet and sour with a refreshing coolness to it. Not only did it spread a soothing cold tingle down his throat but it also settled his stomach that he hadn’t even realized was still upset.

The person holding the candy let out a startled squeak when he grabbed the candy with his tongue. Then she waited for him to make a small sound of relief before placing something gray and soft in front of his face.

Detecting a familiar fragrance, he dragged it to his face and buried his nose in it, inhaling the scent of harpy and something else as she explained, “It’s a blanket I pulled out of the dirty laundry. Clara thought it might help.” Mathias rubbed his face into the blanket making an agreeable noise as she calmly continued, “I’m Helen, Cora and Clara’s aunt, and the best healer in our flock. It looks like I’m going to have to stitch you up. Which will mean running thread and needle through your skin to pull the tears closed. Is that ok?”

Mathias thought it over for a minute before letting out an indistinct, “Yes.”

“Alright,” she said softly as she appraisingly looked him over, “I think I’ll start at the tip of your tail and work my way up.” Then ever so carefully she made her way along his tail.

Helen gently lifted and examined his fan-like tail fin. “Hmm,” she murmured thoughtfully, “I need some water so I can clean this up and get a better look.” Then as she set it down, he moved his tail, dipped it into the water and then brought it back with a small puddle in the middle.

Sighing in exasperation, she gruffly scolded him, “I have a bowl in my bag and you shouldn’t move more than you need to.”

Still rather bleary eyed, he lifted his head and peeked over the blanket as he giggled like a naughty nervous child.

Huffing out a short laugh, she dryly said, “You’re lucky you’re fucking adorable.” Then she pulled a bowl out of her large messenger bag and scooped up much of the water from his tail before telling him sternly, “Now lay still and let me take care of you.”

“Yes mom,” Mathias mumbled as he obediently laid his head and fin back down.

She shook her head and snickered as she pulled a soft rag out of her bag. “This’ll probably hurt,” she warned him and got to work clearing the dried stuck on blood out of the way. “Well,” she finally said, “it’s not as bad as it first looked. There is a tear going from the tip to a third of the way up your fin. It already shows signs of healing. Will this heal back together on its own?” she asked in amazed curiosity.

“Eventually,” he replied in a pain exhausted voice.

“Let’s try to speed that up,” she said sympathetically as she got a couple of wax sealed and coated envelopes out of her bag. “Now this will hurt,” she told him apologetically as she prepared the needle and scissors from one pouch and the string from the other. Draping his fin just so on his tail, she instructed him, “To deal with the pain I need you to breathe in a very specific way. I need you to slowly breathe in through your nose until your lungs are full. Then hold for a slow eight count. Then slowly release it, count to eight again and repeat.”

She waited for him to practice a few times before she soothingly said, “Keep focusing on your breathing child, and I’ll be done as soon as I can.” Quickly and efficiently, she stitched him up before getting herself some clean water and moving on.

Before she began stitching again she hesitated and interrupted him to ask, “Will your scales grow back?”

“Yeah,” he responded tiredly.

“Some of these scales are cut all the way to the root. When feathers are this badly mangled they grow back faster if they’re plucked,” she explained and then asked, “Shall we try it with your scales?”

“Okay,” Mathias tiredly agreed as he resumed his special breathing.

Pulling a small pair of pliers from her bag, Helen began carefully removing the chunks of scale that in most cases were barely holding on. After stitching up that cut, she continued methodically up his tail, crooning a constant litany of encouragements as she removed scales that were too damaged and stitched up wounds that were too deep or long.

Reaching his torso, she started with his right arm, which once cleaned she found surprisingly free of any but the shallowest of cuts. All she found on his back were a few fading bruises near his shoulders.

“Okay sweetheart,” she continued in her encouraging croon, “we’re about half done here. Now I need you to roll over so I can check over your left side.”

“I don’t think you’ll find anything more on my tail,” Mathias said hoarsely as he stiffly began to roll over with the blanket held to his chest.

Helen frowned, worried over the sound of his voice. “How about you just lay on your back for now and I’ll get you a wet rag and a drink of water.” she said comfortingly.

“Please,” he whispered gratefully as he slowly flopped onto his back. The last third of his tail slipped into the water as his body straightened out.

Fetching a clean rag, Helen soaked it in the nearby water and folded it without wringing it so she could place it dripping wet over his eyes. Feeling the water percolate into his gummed up eyes, Mathias let out a sigh of relief as the ignored discomfort was relieved. “Thanks,” Mathias whispered hoarsely.

“You’re welcome,” she responded happily as she scooped up some water in a clean bowl, “although I’m not done.” Approaching his left side, she spotted how bloody his upper arm was. “Hmm,” she said thoughtfully, crouching as low as she could. “Okay Mathias, I need you to prop yourself up. It only needs to be a couple of inches. Now this is the important part,” she paused to be sure she had his attention before she sternly continued, “Only use your right arm to prop yourself up. Do you understand?”

Nodding, he shoved his right arm back to push himself up while she wedged a foot under his left shoulder to help lift him up a bit. Once they had his head tilted up enough for her to reach, she brought the bowl to his lips and carefully helped him drink. Unbeknownst to her, Mathias was alternating between sipping and breathing the water. Feeling the level of the water in the bowl get low, he turned his head.

Helen righted the bowl and asked, “All done or need a break?”

Once her foot started lowering, Mathias carefully went down with it as he said, “Actually, could you pour the rest into my nose?”

“Why…” Helen started to ask only to interrupt herself and say, “Actually that makes sense. Tilt your head back then.” Once his head was tilted back, she slowly poured the rest of the water up his nose. Then she tucked the bowl away and pulled out another candy.

Placing the larger, softer candy to his lips, she said, “This one is a raspberry dandelion candy.” Once he had pulled that candy into his mouth, she unfolded the rag over his face and retrieved her original bowl and rag.

“I’m going to focus on cleaning you up for now. Once you’re done with the candy we’ll start stitching again if I’ve found anything,” she explained as she moved down to where his tail entered the water. Most of the section in the water she had already gone over as it was light enough that she could lift it even with her weak hands. So it was not too much of a strain to inspect where she had left off. Although with him on his back instead of his side now she had to crouch down even further.

The worst she found while inspecting the left side of his tail were a few lines of scuffed up scales. From the look of them though she would guess that the damage happened during his fight with Clara. “If harpy talons can’t cut through these scales, then what can?” she asked absently as she shifted her attention to his belly.

Tucking the candy into his cheek, Mathias helpfully answered, “Mermaids, subadult merlings, not mermen though. Dragons, including sea wyrms and a few different deep sea monsters, especially sea wyrms. It is in fact a favorite pastime of sea wyrms.”

“Wow,” she noted dryly as she carefully cleaned his belly, “sea wyrms really hate merfolk don’t they?”

“Not really, they’re just easily bored bullies and most things that are smaller than them don’t stand a chance, and so are more boring than doing nothing. Merfolk work together though and are unpredictable…” Mathias trailed off before going back to busily sucking on his candy.

She continued in silence until she switched from his belly to his left hand. “A sea wyrm wouldn’t have left a lone merman alive though, would it?” she finally asked.

Frowning, Mathias mumbled a negative, “Nuh-uh.”

Cleaning his upper arm, she revealed four deep parallel marks. Sighing, she asked, “Still sucking the candy?”

“No,” he regretfully admitted.

Nodding, Helen said, “I need you to roll your upper body onto your right side so I can stitch this arm up properly.”

Stifling a whimper, Mathias clutched his good arm around his chest and the blanket as he twisted his body to the proper orientation.

Helen gave his hip a comforting pat and said gently, “Shouting curses when the pain is fresh or spikes and groaning loudly as you move can help with the pain. Holding it in will make it feel worse.”

“Okay,” Mathias said shakily before starting up the breathing that she had taught him.

Helen waited for his breathing to settle into a steady rhythm before she stitched up his arm. “Alright,” she said soothingly once she finished, “now let’s get you back onto your back so that we can check out your ch…” Noticing how tightly he was holding the blanket to his chest, she changed her mind and said, “So we can work on your face.”

“Okay,” he mumbled before slowly dropping onto his back with a drawn out groan.

“There you go,” she said encouragingly before carefully pulling the still damp cloth off of his face.

With the sleep goop finally cleared out of his eyes, Mathias blinked up at her, getting his first real look at the harpy. Her feathers were black with a few gray streaks on her head and her face had a few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and between her eyebrows. Otherwise she did look like a relative of Clara and Cora.

Curiously, he reached up with his right hand and touched her wrinkles, never having seen wrinkles up close before, mostly having only heard about them.

Chuckling, she allowed him to feel over her wrinkles for a moment before she dryly explained, “The ones at the corners of the eyes are called crows feet and the ones between the brows are worry lines. I guess merfolk don’t wrinkle as they age?”

Blushing in embarrassment, he pulled his hand away and said sheepishly, “No, but we do lose color.”

Nodding thoughtfully, she said, “Makes sense. Now I need you to hold your head still so I can clean you up and see what we’re working with here. So no blinking or talking. Eyes closed and nose breathing only would be best.”

Mathias gave her a very brief lopsided smile as he tried to only smile with his right cheek before he closed his eyes and mouth. “Good boy,” she murmured encouragingly.

Cleaning his cheek, she noticed the similarities between the scars that were already there and the slightly shorter and one fewer cuts that were there now. “Dodging is always better than blocking. Make them expend more energy than you.” She told him approvingly.

Finding nothing else on his face, she said, “I’m going to stitch this up and then we’ll see if anything is hiding in your hair. Squeeze the blanket when it hurts, and try to breathe slowly through your nose.”

Once she had stitched up his face, she helped him to prop himself up onto his elbows so that she could carefully run her taloned fingers over his scalp. He held himself extremely still as she did so. He barely even trembled as her taloned hands went over the back of his head. After confirming that nothing hurt and that nothing was bleeding she helped him put his head back down.

“Alright Mathias, we need to look at your chest now. Can we remove the blanket or do you need a few minutes?” she asked him patiently as she organized her equipment, doing her best not to rush him.

“Umm,” Mathias said in confusion as he looked at the hands that had gone back to clutching the blanket. He hadn’t even been aware that he had been doing it until she’d brought his attention to it. “We can do it now?” he said uncertainly, feeling an odd vulnerability that he didn’t understand the source of. Just that he did not want to expose his chest.

“How about this?” she said soothingly, “You’ll pull the blanket down a little at a time and I’ll clean as we go until the blanket is on your belly.”

“Yeah sure,” he said in a small voice.

Helen cradled the bowl against her chest and settled down beside him with the wet rag at the ready. Giving him a reassuring smile, she told him soothingly, “Go ahead and take your time sweetheart.”

“Yeah okay,” Mathias muttered to himself then took a deep soothing breath before he started slowly pulling the blanket down. As the blanket slid lower, Helen carefully cleaned around his wounds. Mathias kept his eyes trained on her face, not wanting to catch another glimpse of his own chest before he had to.

As more and more of his chest was exposed, the lines between Helen’s brows grew deeper and deeper, though she managed to continue speaking softly and encouragingly. Once she finished with the clean up she set the bowl down and, still in her soothing voice, explained, “If you were human I’d just have to put a salve on it and wrap it up. But your skin is stretchy enough that if I’m careful I can stitch it up… I don’t have enough thread left but I think your hair’ll work if you’ll allow me to cut some of it?”

He blinked at her in a daze for a moment before realizing that there had been a bit of a question in that and blurted out, “Hair grows back.” Blushing slightly, he looked away from her and tried to say nonchalantly, “I mean, yeah you can use my hair.”

Chuckling, Helen gave him a reassuring smile and said, “I should have asked if it’ll grow back. It might’ve been like lizardfolk spines which always grow but don’t really grow back.”

“Okay,” he said bashfully as he glanced back at her.

“Shall I cover your face with a wet rag again?” she asked him kindly.

“Uh-huh,” Mathias mumbled distractedly as he clenched and kneaded the blanket over his belly.

Helen quickly took the rag that had covered his face before, wetted it again, and draped it over his face once more. “Go ahead and start breathing while I gather some hair,” she said while getting her tools ready. Mathias nodded and then held still as he returned to focusing on his breathing, trying to block everything else out.

Cutting a few strands at a time as she needed them, Helen found merfolk hair tougher to cut than expected, although her scissors were still up to the job. The strands were stiffer than they looked as well, making it more difficult to weave them together and tie into knots than expected, but not unmanageably so. Carefully, persistently, with a smaller needle and many an encouraging word she stitched his chest back together.

Finally done, she packed her tools away and lifted the barely damp cloth off of his face. “How’re you holding up?” She asked as she folded and put the small rag away.

“It hurts,” he whined quietly as he pulled the blanket back up and buried his face into it.

“I know sweetheart,” she said sympathetically as she offered him another raspberry dandelion candy and gently asked another question, “Can you tell me about what happened?”

Mathias peeked at her and took the candy, sneaking it into his mouth as he mumbled, “Chloe,” as if that one word was all the explanation needed.

Helen’s face hardened and she settled as low to the ground as she could get. Gently she caressed the top of his head, getting ready to have a difficult discussion that might keep her out past sundown.

Chapter 13

“Mathias,” Helen began slowly, “the girls have been talking about finding a way to move you. What are your thoughts on the matter?”

Mathias sighed heavily and said, “It’s a nice thought, but it wouldn’t work.”

“Why not?” she gently prodded when he stopped talking.

Sighing again, Mathias organized his thoughts as he sucked noisily on the candy. Finally he wearily said, “The mating bond was created to aid in raising merlings, not to tie a couple to each other.”

Helen made an encouraging curious sound when he stopped talking again, so fighting a small smile, Mathias continued, “Parents always know where their eggs, fry or merlings under the age of five are. The only exceptions are if the bond gets broken by a parent breaking the merling's trust. That is very hard to do though. The merlings need to be old enough to reason, and the parent would need to maliciously cause grievous bodily harm to one or more of the merlings.”

Mathias had stopped speaking long enough that Helen was opening her mouth to ask another question when he grumpily added another thought, “That is if she doesn’t start harming them before they’re old enough to reason. If she does that then she might need to kill one of them before the bond would be broken. I won’t let her though.” Growling softly, he turned his head away from Helen and glared off into the distance.

Clenching her teeth, Helen agreed grimly, “Of course you won’t.”

Patting his head soothingly, she asked, “What if we took you to a land locked lake or pond?”

Mathias shook his head and sighed saying, “Merlings also always know where their parents are, and when they’re eighteen months old their instincts start driving them to spend part of their nights in the company of their lesser known parent.”

Helen grumbled and stared off broodingly for a bit before brightening up and asking cheerfully, “What if we killed her for you?”

That thought alone was enough to cheer Mathias up for a moment. But it didn’t take long for his eyes to dim as he shook his head and said softly, “If I had been at full strength when I attacked Clara, then she would have likely been dead before I realized that she wasn’t just a really big bird. And Chloe… is not that much weaker than me at my peak. She has always enjoyed fighting more and her claws are much sharper than mine.”

Helen sighed regretfully and said, “Alright, then I need you to go over with me what happened so I can help you strategize for next time.”

Letting out a soft whimper, Mathias asked in a small voice, “Can I have another candy first?”

“Of course sweetheart,” Helen said gently as she dug out another of the pinkish candies and handed it over. “You don’t have to suck it anymore, you can chew them if you want to.”

Pulling the candy under the blanket and to his mouth, Mathias asked nervously as he decided whether to suck or chew, “Is there anything in the water that could endanger my eggs?”

Helen turned and stretched up as she peered out into the water. “Hmm,” she said thoughtfully, “There’s nothing that I can see.”

Mathias chewed slowly before he haltingly told her what had happened that day, with the only interruptions being when she needed a point clarified. Once he had finished, she passed him a smaller yellowish lemon mint candy. Then they both contemplated in silence as she turned over in her head thoughts of what he could do next time to make things less shitty.

After a while, Helen finally spoke in a slightly haunted voice, “I’m not sure what you could’ve done differently. Even dodging only seemed to have made things worse. But if she had knocked you out again then she might’ve gone after the eggs. She seems completely unhinged, someone like that will kill eventually. Most likely the one she’ll kill will be you or your babies. If not both.”

Helen paused then offered tentatively, “We could try building you an underwater room that you could lock from the inside in the land locked lake?”

Mathias shook his head and said sadly, “They would hurt themselves trying to escape.”

Helen tried again with a bit of fragile cheer, “How about if several of the girls mobbed her when she comes back next time. If they work together then they should be able to pull it off without too much of a risk.”

Mathias perked up once more at this thought and then deflated and shook his head and said defeatedly, “She came when the tide was at its highest, she’ll probably do the same next week.”

She sighed and grumped while giving him a stern look, “Well, if you ever get the chance to lure her into our clutches…”

Fighting off a smile, Mathias agreed quickly, “I’ll do it eagerly.”

Reaching under her he patted her foot and said reassuringly, “If I can stay alive until the bond starts to fade I’ll be able to convince the merlings not to seek their mother anymore and flee. If I can time it right, she’ll no longer automatically know where they are and will have to think about it, and so we should have most of a day's head start on her before she realizes we’re gone.”

She grumbled in dissatisfaction and settled her wings resignedly as she said, “That’s a long range plan, it’ll take a lot of short range plans to get there.”

Mathias gazed thoughtfully up at her as she went on, “First thing we’ll have to change how we feed you. We’ll be giving you a large meal once a week, in three days we’ll bring one by and then it’ll be another week til the next one.” He nodded in agreement without otherwise interrupting. “On the day she is here we’ll come by after she’s gone with a slightly larger than average meal. Hmmm, I’ll need a way for you to signal us that she’s gone… Oh! I can send Cora out with a bright yellow rock for you to place on this boulder when you want us to come by.”

Smiling lopsidedly, Mathias softly interjected, “I can also leap out of the water and do flips to catch your flock’s attention.”

“Not while you’re injured you won’t,” Helen sternly told him.

“Alright,” he easily agreed, “no leaping out of the water while injured. I will need you to come and remove the stitches in six days though.”

Helen squawked in outrage and gave him a wide eyed look as she spluttered out, “No! But why?”

Sighing, Mathias soothingly said, “I know I’m not likely to be healed by then. But I don’t want her to know that you guys are directly helping me. And I should still be better off than if I didn’t get those six days.”

Gritting her teeth, she stared down at him for a while before she finally spat out, “Fine!”

Mathias gave a sad relieved sigh before she went on in a calmer tone of voice, “Speaking of injuries, what time of day will it be easiest for you to get onto this rock?”

“Umm,” he said thoughtfully, “probably around midmorning. The boulder is still exposed then but not by much so I can slip onto it much easier. But Cora won’t be able to stay very long at that time of day because the tide is still coming in.”

Helen nodded thoughtfully and said, “That’ll suck, but we don’t want your stitches being ripped early.”

Helen then hummed and shifted from foot to foot but she could think of nothing else. Finally with a grumble, she said, “If I think of anything else I’ll have Cora talk with you about it.

Mathias nodded and tightly gripped the blanket as he asked in a small voice, “How is Clara?”

Startled, she blinked at him blankly for a moment before saying, “She’s fine, she birthed a harpy egg this morning. We’ll have to wait till she’s birthed at least three more to be sure that there’ll be no mer eggs. And she went right back to being hungry after so there is at least one more.”

Mathias smiled so that his eyes were slightly squinted and his injured cheek hurt and said in a hoarse voice, “I’m glad.”

Giving him a bemused look, Helen reached for his uninjured cheek and rubbed just beneath his eye with the back of her talon as she confusedly asked, “Do merfolk not produce tears?” Mathias shook his head in confusion.

“Huh,” she said nonplussed before removing her hand and asking, “Do you want to keep the blanket?”

Clenching the blanket, he lowered it just enough to fully expose his face as he asked uncertainly, “Are you sure?”

Nodding firmly, Helen offered, “I can even gather your scales into it so you can take them with you.”

“Alright,” he said softly as he slowly let go of the blanket.

Helen carefully gathered as many broken scales as she could find onto the blanket and folded it up over them. Then looking sternly into his eyes she said, “Ok Mathias, I want to be the one to do most of the work getting you into the water, got it?”

“I got it,” he replied softly.

With a gentle smile she picked up the folded blanket and said, “I need you to sit up on your own.” Nodding he grunted as he pulled himself upright. Handing the blanket back to the panting merman she popped an unidentified yet sweet candy into his mouth before moving around behind him.

Hooking her little arms under and around his arm pits she said, “Relax and let me move you now.” He relaxed against her as she slowly pushed him forwards driving him into the water a little at a time. Soon enough she had him dangling over the water with her wings spread and flapping to help her keep her balance as she lowered him as much as she safely could.

Just before she let go of him, Mathias shoved the candy into his cheek and said in a rush, “Cora might need to throw rocks into the water to wake me tomorrow, and thank you.”

“Got it,” Helen grunted out and said as she released him, “and you’re welcome.”

Mathias sank swiftly into the water before regaining control of himself and swimming painfully over to his nest. After inspecting the nest, he scattered the scales from the blanket and then curled up around his eggs to fall asleep with his face buried in the blanket.

Chapter 14

Over the next couple of days, Mathias slept much better than he had been expecting. He realized why as the scent of harpy started fading from the blanket. He didn’t feel right asking for a new blanket, so he left it as it was. Even so, it was still better than nothing, because while it was picking up his scent it was not picking up her’s. So when he resumed having nightmares, at least they didn’t continue once he woke up.

Over those five days, Cora delivered a bright yellow rock that was about half the size of his head, which he hid at the base of the boulder. Clara laid another harpy egg and he recovered much faster than he expected. So much so that he hoped that he wouldn’t actually need the stitches anymore and that it wouldn’t be a problem to remove them.

Cora let him know that Helen would be coming in the afternoon. Most likely when the tide had receded enough that she could safely land on the rock. So, on day six Mathias anxiously awaited the tide’s coming and going.

Early afternoon, Mathias saw a shadow from overhead. He carefully scanned his surroundings before leaving his nest for the boulder.

Wiggling his way onto the boulder top, he wasn’t surprised to see Helen. “Hi,” he said nervously as he sat up beside her.

Sighing, she pulled a pair of pliers and a pair of scissors out of her bag and said, “Let’s deal with the stitches first so your stomach can settle before we put food on it.”

Gulping, he nodded and laid back down so he could twist around to expose the entirety of the torn up side of his tail to her.

Carefully removing the stitches and packing them away, Helen was astonished at how healed up he was. As she moved to allow him to sit up she said, “Other than the one on your fin, I don’t think your tail needs any of these stitches anymore.”

Sitting up once more, Mathias gave her a relieved smile before looking down at his chest. “What about these?” he asked in a soft worried voice.

Frowning worriedly, she shook her head and said, “We’ll just have to have a look-see and find out. Now look up at the sky and place your hands on the rock behind your back.” As he held the pose she asked for she murmured, “There you go,” and got to work carefully picking the sutures out of his chest.

“You can relax now,” she said soothingly when she finished. Once he was looking at her again she explained how his healing was progressing. “It is better than I worried it still would be, but not as good as I’d hoped it’d get after seeing your tail. But the only ones that still need the stitching are also the ones that had their sutures rip through the nearby skin. So we just need to leave them.” She frowned briefly before patting his right shoulder reassuringly and saying with a small smile, “But they aren’t many so don’t worry too much.”

Mathias gave her a relieved smile which she returned before slipping around behind him and to his other side. “Now should we start with your cheek or your arm?” she asked thoughtfully.

“Umm, my arm?” he responded uncertainly.

“Alright,” she said confidently as she began picking the stitches out of his upper arm. “Hmm, the one in the middle could use some restitching but the others seem ok,” she said before grumbling, “Still would’ve liked to give them another day or two.”

Giving his upper arm one last look over, she touched his chin to guide him into tilting his head to the perfect angle and said, “Now close your eyes and hold still.” After a few more mildly painful tugs on his cheek Helen’s hands left his face and she said cheerfully, “Well these don’t look too bad at least. Now I have a present for you!”

Mathias’ eyes popped open as he eagerly asked, “Is it candy?”

Helen chuckled as she rummaged through her bag saying, “Well I do have candy if you want some, but no the gift is something a bit more practical than that.” Finally pulling out a square wax coated envelope, she asked, “Do you have a way of cutting your own hair?” Mathias pulled a strand of hair into his mouth and snipped it with his teeth before holding it out to her curiously. Grinning, she said, “Hold onto it.” Then she opened up the envelope to reveal a worn bronze half hoop earring.

Furrowing his brow in confusion, Mathias asked, “It’s an old earring?” He’d seen a few fishermen wearing earrings such as this, but he had never really paid that much attention to them.

Snorting, Helen said dryly, “Now don’t go getting overly enthusiastic on me.” At his blank look, she removed the half hoop from the straight pin and explained, “I got it from a fisherman. It’s a sailor’s needle. They store it on their ear, and a bit of twine about their wrist so that they can quickly patch up sail or skin. There is a knobby bit at one end of the pin that the eye of the needle slips over, and a split at the other that the point of the needle sits in.”

Going wide eyed once more, Mathias excitedly said, “Oh! So I can stitch up my own wounds.”

“Yes,” she agreed gravely, “But, I still want to guide you when it’s needed and give you stitches where you can’t reach or restitch if you haven’t done a proper job. Which it’ll take you a while to get good at it…” She trailed off and then sadly muttered, “Although I’d rather you never had the opportunity to get good at it.”

Sighing, she continued as he nodded along, “When you’re that badly beaten though we’ll probably do what we did this time. Where I’ll do the initial patch up and then once you’ve rested up and she’s due to show up again, we’ll undo my work and have you patch anything that still needs a few days back up. Now which side do you want the earring on?”

After a moment of thought, Mathias said, “The right side.”

Grinning, she nodded and said, “Scars on your left cheek and an earring in the right ear. That should look very stylish. Now turn towards me.”

Laughing, he twisted his body so she could easily get to his right ear. Gripping the tip of his ear in her blunt talons, she pulled it taunt as she calmly told him, “You might want to do some of that breathing from last week. I’m going to pierce your ear with the needle, then pull it out and push the pin through the hole.”

“Okay,” he said softly and breathed rhythmically as he braced himself for the pain. Helen worked quickly and efficiently and soon had the pin resting in his ear.

“Good job,” she said soothingly as she pulled back, “I’ll get you some candy soon but first I need to teach you what to do with this.” She held the needle up briefly before going and rinsing it in the salt water.

Slipping the needle back into the envelope, she pushed it into her bag and brightly said, “Your hairs are about as thick as horse hairs so we won’t need many but I need you to snip a few more about the same length as the first one.”

“Okay,” he said hesitantly as he separated out a few more hairs and snipped them into his hand. Holding out the slim bundle of hair, he asked doubtfully, “Is this enough?”

Grinning, Helen chirped, “Good, good hand them here and I’ll show you how to make thread.” Carefully taking the hair from him, she adjusted them until all of the hairs sticking out of the top of her hand were roughly the same length then she said, “Normally I’d make a slip knot and hold it with my teeth. Obviously that wouldn’t work for you.”

Mathias smiled showing off his sharp incisors and long pointy canines as she continued, “So I’m gonna teach you a noose knot. First you twist the hair together just a little bit so that they’re easier to handle. Then you make a loop like so, leave yourself a fairly big tail. Then you cross the loose end behind and then wrap it around to the front, then you keep going all the way around. Make sure that there is a nice big opening in the middle. Then use the tip of your talon to poke all those loose hairs down through that hole. Now grab them with the pads of your fingers or hook them with your talon and carefully pull them through, make sure you have all of them through. Then pull carefully on the end so that the knot shrinks but the loop doesn’t. Now you need to hook the loop over something.”

Mathias watched in fascination as she nimbly used the tips of her talons for most of the manipulation she was doing. He gave his own claw tips a brief glance, they really weren’t all that much sharper than her talons, maybe he could use them for a bit more than he’d thought.

Helen smirked at his thoughtful expression and then cleared her throat and said, “Up here you can just loop it over my talon. You’ll have to find something else if you need to do this underwater though.” Mathias took the hair that she held back out to him and placed it over her proffered talon.

Once the loop was in place, she said, “Now grab the long tail and pull until it’s tight on my talon, and then keep it stretched, and twist it.” Nodding Mathias did as instructed. Helen continued to provide tidbits of instructions, such as when and how to move his hands down, and when to scoot back or how to keep a hold of the forming thread as she backed away from him.

Once he reached the shortest hair, she had him stop and said, “Okay, keep it stretched with your right hand and use a talon from your left hand to place in the middle of the half string.” Once he had done so, she continued. “Now keeping everything tight, lower your left hand and bring your right hand towards mine so that both ends can kiss. There you go,” she said nodding encouragingly as he brought the ends together, “Now remove your talon so the body can embrace.” Snorting he suppressed his laughter as he caught sight of her knowing smirk.

Pulling his claw back, he gasped in surprise and watched in wide eyed wonder as the newly formed string rapidly spun into being. Grinning at him, Helen showed him how to straighten out the bumps and kinks that always inevitably form when making string like this. Then she pulled the string off her talon and pushed up on the knot until it came undone.

“Now,” she said confidently, “it’s time to make a simple knot. First you loop the loose end with a little bit of the twisted bit in it around your finger. Then once you have a nice circle you carefully pull your finger free. Then you fold the loose hairs over and push them through the loop like so.” As she spoke she demonstrated using her thumb and talon at the end to carefully make sure every hair got through the loop before finishing her explanation, “Now to keep the knot where you want it, you pull down on the loop while pulling up with the loose hairs. You want the knot as tight as possible, so I’ll tug at the loose end until the knot is no thicker than the string.”

“Now,” she held the new string out to him while speaking, “you need to trim the loose hairs down so that they’re only sticking out a little bit from the string.”

Taking the string from her, Mathias examined it curiously before carefully trimming the end down, startling Helen when he swallowed the loose bits instead of spitting them out. But she decided not to comment on it and instead pulled the envelope containing his needle back out of her bag. Mathias held the string out to her as she pulled the needle free once more. Smiling, Helen took the string back and showed him how to thread the needle before handing it over to him.

Helen hummed thoughtfully for a moment as Mathias gazed expectantly at her before she finally said, “It might be best to start with your tail fin, so bring it up into easy reach.”

“Alright,” he agreed easily as starting at the tip of his tail he slid his tail fin up over his tail till it was resting on his belly.

Chapter 15

“Snakes are probably less flexible than you,” she remarked dryly after bemusedly watching Mathias’ tail move.

Smiling shyly, he shrugged and said, “Cephalopods aren’t.”

Furrowing her brow in confusion, Helen asked, “Setholoh-whatsit?”

Chuckling, Mathias repeated and then explained, “Cephalopods, they’re squid, and octopi, and krakens amongst other similar creatures.”

Eyeing his tail suspiciously, she muttered, “Yeah, well they also don’t have bones.” Then she shook her wings and cleared her throat, getting them back on topic by saying, “I’ll ask later. For now let’s get working on your fin.”

Mathias nodded seriously as she pointed out the holes to either side of the half healed rip in his tail. “This is where I passed the needle to hold the rip together. Your needle is bigger so it’ll make the holes larger… It’ll hurt but I need you to follow along in my trail. Start at the bottom where it’s already healing together and work your way outside.”

Mathias nodded uncertainly and moved the needle hesitantly towards the holes in question until Helen took his hands and guided him through the first set of holes. He hissed in pain but tried to focus more on what he was doing rather than what he was feeling.

Removing her hand, Helen said encouragingly, “You’re doing so good. Now you need to keep pulling until there is only a little tail.” Helen nodded as he did as instructed then she continued, “Good, good. Now wrap the long tail around your talons, and then with those wrapped talons pull the short tail through and pull them tight, but not too tight you just want to pull the edges of the wound to each other.” She grinned at Mathias who was turning out to be an apt student, then said “Now do it just one more time going in the opposite direction.”

Mathias gave her a shy smile as she clapped delightedly. He found her enthusiasm a bit exuberant and embarrassing but still rather enjoyable. Returning his smile with a full on grin, Helen cheerfully said, “Alright, cross back over to the side you started on and continue following the tracks I left for you until you get to the end.”

Gulping, Mathias nodded and got back on task. Once he reached the end of his tail she instructed him to knot it basically the same way, only making a loop into a short tail this time.

“Well,” she said thoughtfully as she examined his work, “you took longer at it than I would’ve, and while it’s a little tight or loose in some spots, because of the stitch I had you doing and the place that you stitched that shouldn’t be an issue.”

Giving him a reassuring smile, she chirped out a cheerful, “Good job! Now knot the end of your thread before it unravels.”

Smiling sheepishly, Mathias quickly did as she bid, then he curiously remarked, “You tied off most of the stitches last time.”

“Mmhmm,” she affirmed and explained, “When you tie off each suture it’s more secure. If one rips then the others will remain tied. But hand spun string doesn’t stay raveled as well and so you’d need to reknot the end of the string every time. Also you use more string knotting each stitch than if you just do it beginning and end. And this is easier to do one handed if need be.”

Mathias nodded and said, “Oh, okay,” before gazing fretfully at the still slightly open wound on his upper left arm.

“Yes,” Helen said soothingly, “we need to work on that one, and it’ll most likely need to be done one handed. First let’s see how flexible your arm and hand are. Bring your left hand up and try to touch either end of your cut.”

Mathias fumbled about on his arm for a few moments, almost but not quite touching the cut several times before she spoke up, “Okay, you’ll have to stitch that up one handed. You can hold the needle with your left hand while your right hand does stuff but that’s it.”

Mathias nodded in agreement and muttered, “At least it’s not my right arm.”

The corners of her mouth quirked upwards as she remarked seriously, “There is that at least. Okay, you’ll need to tie a noose knot into the end of your string.” It took him a few tries but he eventually managed to tie the knot to her satisfaction.

Nodding once more, she said, “Alright, now hold the loop in your left hand while you work the needle through your skin. Normally you’d want to hold up the edge of your skin to make sure you’re getting the depths right and you’re not puncturing the muscle unnecessarily. But it’s already partially healed and you only have one hand, so I’ll just guide you through it.”

“Okay,” Mathias said shakily before taking a deep cleansing breath.

Once again she guided him through those first two holes on the back side of his arm, and then he hooked the needle through the loop. She had him hold the needle in his left hand while he worked the string with his right. Helen coached him through pulling the thread through and tightening the knot in turn until she was semi satisfied. With a sigh, she coaxed him through following her tracks till the end, only having to stop and have him loosen or tighten a stitch twice.

By this point, Mathias was pale and nauseous, so when he looked expectantly at her, she encouragingly said, “We’re almost done sweetheart. We just have to go through those last two holes one more time and tie one last knot.”

Whimpering, Mathias nodded determinedly and pulled the needle through his skin one more time. Once he had it at the proper tightness Helen instructed him, “Okay, now hook the needle under the second to last suture and pull the thread most of the way through. Now wrap the thread through that loop three times and pull it tight.” As soon as he did that, she murmured soothingly, “Good job. Now pull the needle free of the thread and put it in your other hand and trim the excess thread down. There’s not enough left to be useful but it’s too long to be safe.”

While he was doing that, she rummaged around in her bag and then held out the promised candy, a lemon mint candy. “Here kiddo,” she said with a bit of melancholic cheer, “why don’t you suck on this and lean on me?”

Smiling tiredly, he gave a soft, “Thank you,” as he took the candy and cuddled up to Helen. He tucked his head under her chin as she rubbed between his shoulders and sang with a slightly cracked voice what he’d come to think of as Clara’s Lullaby.

‘Although,’ he thought, ‘perhaps A Harpy’s Lullaby might be a better name for it.’ Mathias then zoned out for a bit, enjoying the candy and company until the candy was gone.

Swallowing the last bit of candy, Mathias sat up and held out the needle asking, “What do I do with this now?”

Startled and feeling a mite forgetful, Helen exclaimed, “Ah!” and then quickly said, “Take it to the water and clean it up,” as she dove back into her bag.

Bemusedly, Mathias scootched himself over a tiny bit so that he could easily reach the water and clean the needle. As he washed the needle, Helen settled down beside him and leaned over, bracing herself with a wing wrapped around him and the other flared out as she got low enough to get something in her hands wet. Sitting back up, she tucked her wings away again and asked Mathias to hand her the needle.

Passing it over, he watched curiously as she carefully inspected it before she showed him a stone that fit perfectly in her palm. “It needs to be sharpened like so,” Helen said as she pulled the head of the needle over the stone while twisting, rotating, and doing it again.

While sharpening the needle, she explained, “Skin is tough, so needles get dull easily while poking through someone. And dull needles hurt more than sharp ones. But still, you should examine the needle with your fingertips for any rough patches before you go stitching. Either a stone like this or stabbing it in and out of fine sand repeatedly will sharpen it.”

Handing Mathias the stone, she twisted around grunting at the stretching and contortions she was having to do. She started fiddling with the needle at the base of her tail and thoughtfully said, “After sharpening and before putting away or using it’ll need oiling. Hmmm… Which I suppose you could do by running it through your hair?” She looked curiously at his hair and shrugged saying uncertainly, “Might be best to do it with dry hair and needle though.”

Smiling, Mathias said gravely, “I’ll figure something out.”

Returning his smile, Helen rose back up so she could more easily reach his ear. “Okay now give me your hands.” Mathias set the rock down so that if it rolled it’d roll into him then held his hands out to Helen. Taking his hands, Helen guided him through hooking the eye over the knob on the pin in his ear, and then through getting the point into the slit on the back side. Then she guided him through taking it off again.

“Alright now,” she said, “I want to see you put it on and take it off yourself.” With a frown, Mathias nodded and replaced and removed the half hoop a few times until Helen was satisfied.

“Good enough,” she murmured and then her face went stern as she seriously told him, “It takes a human piercing six to eight weeks to heal. It might only take you four weeks from how quickly you’ve been healing. But still it’d be best to not fiddle with that unnecessarily, or sleep directly on it for the next six weeks. Got it?”

Mathias went a bit wide eyed and let out a soft, “Uh-huh.”

At his agreement, she suddenly smiled and brightly asked, “Are you ready to eat now?” Sucking in his lower lip, Mathias hummed an agreement as he nodded eagerly. Pulling out a wooden box from her bag, she handed it to him and helped him open it as she told him, “I brought you some meaty hand pies.”

“Hand pies?” Mathias asked curiously as he examined the four half moon shaped, golden pastries.

Nodding, Helen elaborated, “Hand pies are held in your hands to eat instead of needing a plate and fork.”

Frowning, Mathias asked woefully, “More eating tools to learn?”

Snickering, she reassured him, “Not today.” Then she remarked archly, “Not that it really seems to bother you having Cora teach you such things.”

At his bright blush, she smirked and kindly told him, “Eat your food kiddo.” With a bashful smile, he carefully picked one up and then almost delicately shoved the whole thing into his mouth. Chewing slowly, he made a thoughtful noise of appreciation.

Helen stared at him in agog amazement for a few moments before she shook her wings and refocused her thoughts. Finding a topic that she was sure he’d ask about later, Helen said, “Clara’s egg laying is continuing to proceed as normal, so I don’t think you need to worry on that front.”

At his happy nod she briefly petered out, not having much more to say on that subject. Then she started topic jumping, telling him all kinds of disjointed healing tips as they popped into her mind until he was trying to get the last flaky crumbs out of the box. Interrupting herself mid sentence about the proper uses for leeches when reattaching fingers she asked, “I have some honey drops, do you want a few?”

“Yes please!” Mathias eagerly exclaimed as he relidded the box and handed it over. Laughing, Helen put away the box and pulled out a small pouch, reaching in she grabbed a small handful of amber colored candies which she placed into his waiting hand.

As he happily sucked them into his mouth she chuckled and ruffled his hair saying, “Mathias, I need to get going. You should take the whetstone with you though.”

Tucking the candy into his cheek he scooped up the stone and said. “Thank you.” Before shyly asking, “Umm… Can you teach me more knots next time?”

Helen blinked briefly in surprise before grinning and agreeing, “That sounds fun. And maybe we’ll talk about bones as well.”

“Alright,” he readily answered and gave her one last smile as he said, “Till next time then.”

Waving, she replied as he slipped into the water, “See ya next time.”

Reaching his nest, he found an inconspicuous spot to stash the stone and returned to tending his eggs as he grimly awaited the next day.

Chapter 16

His nightmares that night were as bad as they’d ever been. After extending into his wakefulness once again, they ended with the usual standby of him clinging to his nest and chanting his old mantra. The rest of the morning and early afternoon was not much better. He was so anxious about what was coming that he flinched and whimpered every time the currents caused a rock to tumble or the skeletal coral to rub against each other. It got to the point where he wondered if maybe he might’ve been better off not knowing when or if she would be showing up.

Once she finally made her approach, he found it to be almost a relief. When he caught her strengthening scent upon the current he let out a low fearful moan as his body briefly slumped. The next moment, before he had even thought to look towards where she would be appearing from and without any conscious thought, he coiled himself protectively over his eggs. It was only once he was done that he thought to tuck his tail fin in. Unfortunately it was once again the still tender right side of his tail that was facing outwards.

It didn’t take long for Chloe’s impatient voice to sound out, “Gods Mathias, can you be any more of a coward?” She tapped impatiently at the scales on her hip, watching as he whimpered and trembled. Sighing, she rolled her eyes and said in a condescending tone, “If you can learn to act happy about being with me I can tell people where you are.” At his silence and stillness on the matter, yet while still impatiently tapping her fingers, she said with an oddly bright sympathetic tone, “I’m sure you’re getting lonely out here.”

No matter how hard he tried though, Mathias couldn’t force himself to uncoil and face her. In response to his continued resounding silence and fearful trembling, Chloe growled out a command, “Mathias, face me.” Stiff and jerky, he wiggled his torso up and into view. Wide eyed in fear he faced her, shoulders hunching defensively as he crossed his arm protectively over his chest. His right hand clasped firmly over the scars and stitching on his left arm.

“That’s better!” she said brightly before she spotted his earring and with a glower asked him darkly, “Have you been interacting with any fishermen?”

Frantically shaking his head, he stuttered out a firm denial, “N-no!”

Her frown softened slightly as she glared at his earring and asked suspiciously, “Then where did that earring come from?”

Having grown up in the same school, Mathias knew Chloe fairly well. Chloe was really good at detecting direct lies, so good in fact that she thought she was infalible at detecting any lie. So as long as he could lie like an elf she would take it hook line and sinker. Even so, he flinched as he forced out a one word answer, “Fisherman.” Chloe looked confused for a moment but then shrugged and flicked her fingers as if dismissing the matter as unimportant.

Mathias stifled a relieved sigh, glad that she hadn’t bothered asking for any more details. But his relief vanished with her next words, “Well, I suppose it’s time to feed you.” At these calm words Mathias stiffened and let out a fearful whimper. Giving him a measured look, she remarked thoughtfully, “Yes, I suppose you’re right, using a command might make it safer.”

Mathias flinched and started backing away whispering a soft traumatized, “No, no, no…” at this point loathing nothing more than the feeling of his body moving against his own will.

With a short growl of annoyance Chloe commanded, “Mathias, come drain my breasts.” With one last forsaken whimper, his body moved to comply. It did not take as long to empty her this time, and if the source had been anything else he would have found the sweet creamy taste rather pleasant. Still, once he finished, he was a pale and shaky mess as it brought up memories of the last time.

As soon as he could Mathias started to cautiously drift backwards. With a self satisfied smile Chloe murmured, “That’s better.” Before telling him brightly, “I’d like to make love now.”

Mathias flinched sharply back. His arms slipped down to reveal his only partially healed chest as he whined hopelessly, “It hurts.” Then he shielded his chest again, his hands tucking protectively into his armpits as he cringed and turned so that his left side was towards her.

A brief look of regret flashed over her face before she shrugged and said in disgruntlement, “I suppose we can wait till next week. However, do try to cower less Mathias.” And without even a word of farewell, she turned and left.

The second she turned, he fled to his nest to try and calm himself, as well as to wait and be sure that she was truly gone.

~~~~~

After some time had passed, Mathias crept cautiously towards the boulder. After being sure that Chloe wasn’t going to suddenly reappear, he pulled the yellow rock out of its hiding spot and brought it up to place on the boulder top.

It didn’t take long for a harpy’s shadow to appear in the water. And since Mathias was watching for it he spotted it before her shadow could reach his normal radius. Racing to the boulder Mathias managed to beat her to their shared destination. However, he did not try to pull himself onto the boulder right away. He rested there with his head and shoulder exposed until Cora got close enough that he could identify who it was. He waved at her and then ducked just beneath the waves so that she could land. Once the water above him had calmed down just a little bit he surged back out and onto the boulder.

Cora gave him a searching look and tried to ask a question only to be interrupted by Mathias hugging her tightly around her middle and shoving his head up under her chin. Letting out a strangled squawk as he pushed her head up, she patted his arms reassuringly and asked in a slightly choked voice, “Can you lower your head a bit?”

“Sorry,” Mathias mumbled shakily and wiggled down slightly as he loosely coiled his tail around her feet.

“It’s okay,” she assured, “in other circumstances it would be enjoyable.” Mathias let out a giggle with a bit of a hysterical edge as she looked over what she could see of him. After seeing nothing new aside from his constant trembling she asked worriedly, “Are you hurt anywhere?”

Squeezing her tighter for a moment, Mathias stammered out, “N-n-no.”

“Alright,” she said soothingly and rubbed circles on his shoulders as she wrapped her wings about him. “Then go ahead and cling as long as you want.”

Resting her chin upon his head she started singing The Harpy Lullaby. Mathias thought that she had the prettiest voice so far, but he would never say it out loud. Halfway through the first rendition his trembling slowed and then stopped. By the time she was starting the song again, he was gasping and sobbing. It took two more repetitions for him to calm down. And then his thoughts started circling on what was going to happen next week. Not wanting to dwell upon it he burrowed into her neck with several short frantic licks.

Stopping mid word, Cora shuddered and said huskily, “If you keep that up this friendly comforting will become something else.”

“Okay,” he whispered hoarsely as he gazed up at her briefly before sucking on her upper collar bone as his right hand drifted around to play with her lower nipples.

Letting out a gasping moan, she tugged at his left ear until he looked at her face again. Licking her lips, she said distractedly, “I need help getting my bag off.”

Nodding, he reached for her opposite shoulder and lifted up the leather strap before stopping and curiously asking, “What next?”

Chuckling, she ducked her head down and held her left wing out yet folded and said, “Lift it over my head and wing and set it on the rock.” After he had placed it on the yellow rock she wrapped her little arms around his neck and pulled him into an eager kiss.

His squeak of surprise quickly morphed into a small muffled moan as they explored each other's mouths, learning just how the other liked being kissed. He pulled her tightly against him and wiggled about until his tail was sticking out in front of him making balancing easier.

Gently, he scratched his way back to her front, causing her to arch dangerously into his claws and squeal delightedly as she scratched his shoulder blades with her own blunt talons. Reaching the front and starting with her lower most nipples, he roughly tweaked and rubbed each set in turn until he got to the top most ones, which were attached to full round breasts. Grabbing those, he squeezed and kneaded them as his tail with a loud splash announced its attempts to wrap around something. Cora broke the kiss to look towards the splashing sound.

Mesmerized, Mathias watched her neck as it twisted, then he reached up and grabbed her with his thumbs resting under her chin and the tips of his fingers under her ears, so that he could turn her head back towards him and tilt it upwards.

Cora let out a soft pleasantly surprised, “Oh,” as he kissed his way from the tip of her chin down to her plender gap. He pressed his tongue against the pulse beating in that gap before kissing his way down her sternum. His left hand started caressing her neck as his right hand drifted down to hold firmly to her hip. Just as he flinched away from her nipples, Cora distracted him by moaning out, “Squeeze.”

“What?” he asked in puzzlement, unsure as to what she wanted squeezed, the hand on her neck pausing as he squeezed her hip.

Cora clutched at his left forearm and wiggled a bit as she begged softly, “Please Mathias, squeeze my neck.” Hesitantly, he shifted his grip and gently squeezed. “Please harder,” she panted out. When she started squealing, “Oh goddess yesss!” and scratching audibly at the boulder with her feet something clicked for Mathias. With a loud lusty growl he attacked the breast that he had flinched away from with his mouth while his free hand roughly grabbed its opposite. As aggressive as he was being, however, he was still mindful of his teeth and careful not to go quite so far as to cut her.

With his tail in a bit of a frenzy, Mathias pulled her by the throat into a kiss as he pressed her wet nethers into his scaled lap. Then he hugged her tightly, his hands burying themselves in her feathers as they mutually moaned into each others’ mouth.

Feeling his cock probe around at her pussy, Cora pulled back and breathlessly said, “I have an idea.” Mathias quirked an eyebrow at her before kissing along her jawline as he waited for her to continue. Shivering slightly, Cora huskily said, “Mm, I could sit on the rock while you climb on top of me. Then your tail could press into the rock while we get our rocks off.”

He smirked at the pun he didn’t quite get and slowly let her go as he throatily responded, “Could work.”

Cora tentatively climbed off him and gave his twitching cock an appreciative look before turning around and moving to give him room to maneuver. She then leaned over, lowering herself until she was nearly touching the boulder, mantling her wings as her tail arched to the side.

As soon as she looked over her shoulder at him with an eager little grin, Mathias siddled awkwardly over to her. Placing his hands on her hips he pulled himself up, twisting his tail around behind him as he did so. Then, stiff armed, he held himself against her as his penis found her twitching entrance.

He sunk home, his soft sigh of pleasure drowned out by her loud gasping cry. Unable to ignore the burning in his injured arm any longer, he arm walked up her body until he was able to lay on top of her. Wrapping his arms around her chest he firmly gripped her breasts. He could easily rest his chin on her crown from this angle but he nuzzled behind her right ear as he made small contented sounds.

“Oh goddess, that feels good,” Cora moaned as Mathias wiggled and ground erratically against her.

“Yes,” Mathias agreed breathlessly before saying with just a slight hint of disappointment, “But I don’t think I can orgasim like this.”

“I could,” Cora moaned out as his tail smacked against her clit before continuing, “but we can try something else.”

“I’m in no hurry,” Mathias whispered before he started playing with her ear with lips and tongue while roughly kneading at her chest.

It wasn’t long before she was screaming out her pleasure while her cunt spasmed around his cock. Then Mathias ducked under her right wing and rolled off her back. Wrenching another screaming climax out of her when his hard little head twisted and yanked out of her too sensitive passage.

Cora turned to find Mathias sprawled out at the rock’s edge, giving her a positively feral grin. She gazed from his hair swaying in the water, to his reddened face, down to the trail of flushed skin on his lower stomach and all the way down to his jutting cock glistening with her fluids.

Bouncing his penis, Mathias let out a low predatory rumble, as if daring her to come touch it. Shuddering, she mumbled as she eagerly moved towards him, “I never could resist a dare.” Leaning over his midsection she ran her soft scaled little palms up and down his shaft.

Mathias watched her with hooded eyes for a few moments as his tail splashed loudly, before growling out lustily, “Climb on.” Letting out a small anticipatory moan, Cora straddled his midsection once more as she angled herself to catch the tip of his seeking shaft with her cunt. Then she lowered herself onto him to the chorus of their near simultaneous moans of pleasure.

The only clue Cora might have gotten that something was up was the sudden cessation of the splashing. Then Mathias was wrapping his tail around her. Unfortunately, the sudden movement and the now unevenly distributed weight on the slippery slightly domed surface meant that Mathias slid head first into the water, and Cora was brought along for the ride.

Chapter 17

“Oh shi!” Cora managed to get out before she hit the water. Then Mathias was slamming his face into her’s in a frantic lip lock and prying her mouth open with his tongue. He clamped his right arm around her torso under her thrashing limbs and grabbed a fistful of her feather-like hair to control her head with his free hand, while trying to control their descent and orientation with his tail. Once he got her mouth open and her head still, he regurgitated a thick gel into her mouth. It was body temperature to him, but a bit cool to her. The gel slipped invasively down her throat causing her to start pummeling him on his shoulders.

Once he figured that he’d given her enough to breathe with, he pulled his mouth away and whispered into her ear, “Breathe. It’s okay, just breathe.” As she calmed down and took a hesitant breath, he nuzzled against her ear and soothed, “Shh, shhh, that’s it, in and out, nice and easy.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she clung to him as she looked curiously around at the underwater seascape. Unable to help himself Mathias pressed a kiss to her neck causing her to shiver as he whispered once more, “That’s it, I’ve got you. Now bring in your wings.” Cora folded her wings in tight and tucked her legs and feet up to her body.

Pulling his arm free, Mathias ran his hands over her folded wings as he quietly rumbled, “Good girl.” Wrapping his arms securely around her, Mathias twisted about so that he could swim them back.

Cora’s pussy clenched on nothing at his words, and she realized that he must’ve slipped out while she was panicking. Gazing at his still blushing face and neck, she smirked and nipped at the back corner of his jaw.

Shivering, Mathias pressed his lips to her ear and growled a soft warning, “If you keep that up, I’m going to pin you to the boulder and have my way with you.” Whimpering delightedly, she nipped and sucked on the muscle leading up to his ear. Biting back a groan, he pressed her back to the boulder as he captured her lips. His tongue tangled with hers as he sunk his aching penis back into her depths. Letting out a muffled moan of relief, he held still for a moment. Then he grabbed a fistful of her hair and arched her head back so he could loom over her as they continued to kiss.

Mathias wiggled them around on the boulder until he found a decent handhold. Once he had them anchored in place he desperately started undulating against her as his tail pressed and rubbed against the boulder beneath her. After a few minutes his muffled moans turned into soft desperate whimpers. When Mathias used his free hand to pin her hip to the rock and start moving more aggressively within her, Cora’s legs kicked out her taloned feet clenching into tight balls as she stifled her orgasmic scream. Soon after Mathias shoved into her one final time and came with a groaning shudder.

After they’d taken a few minutes to catch their breaths, Mathias tried to pull Cora up only to realize that the head of his penis was lodged very securely deep within her. He gazed down at her in consternation as she covered her mouth to try not to laugh at the look on his face.

Sighing he rolled his eyes and tucked her head under his chin. At first she pulled her arms and legs close to her body, but once he started moving she immediately clutched at his sides with her hands, and pretty soon she was biting into his shoulder to muffle her moans.

Nearing the surface, Mathias twisted around so that his back was to and nearly flush with the boulder and sped up so that his momentum would help propel them onto the dryish surface. Before he could lose all momentum he dropped his arms from around her and used his forearms and thrashing tail to help push them more securely onto the boulder.

Mathias flopped down in relief and glanced to where Cora’s bag had fallen while Cora herself coughed and spat globs of white foam off to the other side. Once her breathing evened out, Mathias sat up and scooted more towards the center of the boulder top before he started grooming her feathers.

Sighing, she leaned her head against his right shoulder and asked, “So why were we being so quiet down there?”

“Umm,” he hesitated before answering, “Sound travels for miles, and I didn’t want to risk her hearing clearly and coming to investigate…” he petered out for a minute before sighing and shamefully admitting, “Especially since I played up my injuries to get out of making love to her.”

Suddenly reminded that such things exist, Cora exclaimed in alarm, “Ack! Your injuries! How much worse did we make them?!” Sitting up straight she started frantically looking over his chest.

Chuckling happily, he pulled her head back to his shoulder and patted soothingly between her wings as he said, “They’re fine. Yeah sure they’re a little more sore than they were but it’s not bad. Now stay still while I try to help your feathers dry.”

Carefully leaning back against him, she grumbled crossly, “I bet I look like a drowned chicken.”

“I’m sorry,” Mathias said contritely while keeping his eyes on what his hands were doing.

Cora shrugged her wings and sighed as she said, “Ah, it’s okay. It does take two to cartwheel dive after all.” As Mathias was pondering over another new euphemism Cora abruptly asked, “So she’s still after your body, huh?”

Not even wanting to think of it, instead of responding, Mathias asked a question of his own, “Do harpies seek partners?”

She gazed up at his focused face for a moment before shaking her head and answering. “No, not really. We need a flock to be sane, and we do fall in love. But it’s like…” she trailed off trying to figure out how to properly answer then she shrugged and plowed on, “We don’t even really have only one mom. Yeah the one that birthed us, hatched us, named us and nursed us gets called mom. But! Our aunts and grammas are treated the same as our mom, and all flock mates that were adult when you hatched get called aunt or gramma if they were old when you hatched. And yeah before you ask Clara and I are clutchmates as are our mom and aunt Helen.”

Mathias blinked in confusion for a moment before nodding to encourage her to go on. Cora smirked briefly before continuing, “But it’d just be weird to try and tie myself down to any one person and while it’s unusual to have a lot of lovers at one time, it’s also pretty rare to only have one lover.”

Mathias pursed his lips and furrowed his brows as he tried to understand. Cora watched him for a few moments, finding his confused face adorable before she had mercy and tried to help, “Love is like a bottomless well. Doesn’t matter how much you give out, there is still more. If you had fewer babies, would you love them more than you do now.”

Startled at her analogy, he blinked and shook his head before asking hesitantly, “But… isn’t that different?”

Cora chuckled and shrugged, “Well for most species I suppose it might be. Because they can get possessive, obsessive and jealous. But harpies, we only get protective of the ones we love. And the more loved ones our loved one has, the safer they’ll be. Right?”

Mathias thought it over as he gently opened up her wing to carefully groom those feathers. Finally, he responded, “I suppose that’s true. But what if they start spending most of their time with a new lover. Wouldn’t you miss them?”

Cora nodded as she finally managed to climb off his lap she said, “Yes always. But once the shiny newness wears off I’ll see them more again. In the meantime I just gotta be a leaf in the storm and go where the wind blows me.”

Pausing, he shot her a bemused look as he asked, “A leaf in the storm?”

Laughing, she nodded and recited a poem;

“A leaf in the storm,

High up in the sky,

The wind will blow strong,

The wind will blow fierce,

And the leaf will be fine,

But it doesn’t know,

Where it’ll go.”

Mathias let out a simple, “Huh,” before lapsing into a thoughtful silence. After a short bit, he timidly asked, “Should I just do whatever she demands of me?”

Startled, Cora shook her head in confusion as she asked, “Could you live with yourself if you did?”

Sighing, he admitted, “I don’t know.”

Shrugging, she pulled her wing free and turned to offer him the other as she slowly said, “Well, she seems like more of a forest fire than a storm to me. And the best way to survive a forest fire is to get away from it.”

Drawing in a shaky breath, Mathias asked in a small voice, “Could you sing for me?”

With a sad little smile, Cora started to sing. It didn’t sound like the same song to Mathias, but he also wasn’t paying proper attention to it either. He just let it flow over him as he methodically worked as much water out of her feathers as he could, the tune itself and the work of his hands were all the distraction he currently needed from his thoughts.

Her feathers mostly dried on their own before he finished, but he didn’t quit because they still looked rather clumpy, and he didn’t want to be alone. Once he had straightened the last of her tail feathers he pulled her into an abrupt hug, startling a small squawk out of her as he pulled her back into his lap. Burying his nose into her neck he inhaled deeply before mumbling, “Still smells like salt.”

Snickering, she agreed, “Yeah, I’ll need a proper bath when I get home.” She shifted her feet restlessly, unused to sitting in such a way, she was unsure as to what to do with them.

Spotting her bag, she patted his cheek and said brightly, “I brought you some figs.”

Perking up, he looked towards her bag and reluctantly released her as he curiously asked, “Is that a fruit?” Grinning hugely, she rapidly nodded as she regained her footing. Then before she could even step towards the bag, Mathias had snatched it up and held it out to her.

Laughing now, she helped him to slip the bag back onto her before pulling four ripe figs out of her bag for him. As he was looking the little brown fruits over, she pulled another from her bag and eagerly chomped into it. He curiously watched her devour the whole fruit before tossing all four into his mouth.

Licking her fingers, she watched him eat with a smile, then as he was swallowing she asked, “How come you’re willing to fuck so many?”

Mathias coughed slightly in surprise, then clearing his throat he shrugged and responded, “Making love is part of courtship and friendship. Even merfolk that don’t make love to their friends will usually still be courting multiple people up until they fall in love or decide on a partner.”

Smirking, she wiggled an eyebrow at him and asked, “So are you courting me or befriending me?”

Blushing, he ducked his head shyly as he said, “I don’t see how a romantic relationship could work, so definitely befriending.” Then he looked up at her through his lashes and smiled slyly as he said cheekily, “But you keep bringing me food so it could be argued that you’re courting me.” Cackling at that, she moved close enough that she could lean companionably against his side. Letting out a small sigh, he leaned his head against her as they gazed out at the sea.

Noting the first faint traces of sunset, Cora nudged his head with hers and softly said, “I need to be getting home now.”

“Ah, s-” startled, Mathias started to apologize but then shook his head and changed his words to, “Thank you, fly safe.”

Flashing him a smile, Cora chirped out, “Welcome, see you in the morning!”

Nodding in agreement, Mathias grabbed the yellow rock and splashed into the water. Once he had it stowed away, he swiftly swam back to his nest where the only thing to distract him from his thoughts were tending his eggs and practicing spinning his hair. But soon even those would become automatic.

Chapter 18

Mathias nightmares got worse. He could not pinpoint any one thing about them that was worse, except he no longer knew which one would show up. But somehow they left him with less sleep and feeling more upset than they had before. The only upside was the harpies managed to find someone to sell them a whole herd of goats, so Cora had more time to spend with him when she’d drop by to visit.

So midweek when Cora was set to bring him a large meal Mathias only had two thoughts on his mind as he swam to meet her, ‘I wonder what the goat she’s bringing will taste like,’ and ‘I should tell her a story today.’ Every other thought had been forcefully banished from his mind.

He popped out of the water and they exchanged greetings as he examined the pretty black and white dead goat. Gazing up at Cora, he smiled and said, “How about I take this to eat and then tell you a story when I get back.”

Pouting, Cora pointed out, “I wouldn’t mind watching a bloody scene.”

Shaking his head, Mathias explained, “It’s not that, it’d just be easier for me to eat it in the water.”

Cora blinked and tilted her head, letting out a bemused, “Oh, okay.” Then with a shrug, she nudged the goat closer to him as she asked, “What kind of story are you going to tell me.”

Mathias put his hands on the goat as he said thoughtfully, “Hmm, I’m not sure. I’m thinking… The Doom of the Purple Rose, The Origin of Clams, or The Dragon King’s Eternal Romance.” Then his expression brightened up and he eagerly asked her, “Do you want to think about it and decide when I get back?”

Furrowing her brows in thought, Cora slowly asked him, “Do I get any more clues about the stories?”

With a crooked smile and a mischievous lilt to his voice he gave her a cheerful, “Nope!”

Huffing out a laugh, she waved him off as he tugged the goat beneath the waves.

~~~~~

Once he had returned and climbed onto the boulder with her, Cora curiously asked, “So how’d mutton compare to venison?”

He contemplated with a soft, “Hmmm…” before answering, “The goat, that’s mutton right?” At her affirmative nod he continued, “The goat was a bit sweeter, but the skull was also more difficult to break open.”

“Skull,” she muttered in confusion only for comprehension to swiftly strike her as she asked brightly, “Oh, to eat the brains right?”

Laughing, Mathias nodded and agreed, “Right.” Shifting the topic he asked, “So have you decided on which story I’ll tell you.”

Cora replied with a leering smile and a wink, “I wanna hear the one about the clam.”

Mathias’ left eyebrow rose as he remarked dryly, “I’m getting the feeling that clam might have more definitions than I knew.”

Smirking, Cora responded blandly, “It might.”

Chuckling, Mathias shook his head, deciding not to rise to the bait he began his tale, “Long ago, much before mermaids were even a thought. Oceanus, like many a titan, received a prophecy. His prophecy was simple and did not directly involve him, but to him that just made it worse. It was; ‘Your favorite son will bring great harm to your most treasured creation.’ Having no clue as to what to do, Oceanus went home to his new wife to seek her counsel.”

“After a long discussion they decided that even if he could treat all his sons the same, feelings are not so easy to control. Then after an hour of relaxing they realized that celibacy simply wasn’t feasible. So in the end they cut off his left testicle.”

At this point, Cora spluttered out a laugh as she incredulously asked, “What?!”

Mathias’ lips twitched as he restrained his smile. Giving Cora a faintly stern look he requested, “Please wait to ask questions.”

Giggling still, she bobbed her head in a nod and said, “Sure, sure.”

Watching her in amusement, he returned to his tale, “All of Oceanus’ male sperm were in his left testicle, while all of his female sperm were in his right. However even an insignificant chunk of titan flesh has too much vitality to just be thrown away and they worried what might happen if one of them were to eat it. So they chopped the testicle into a thousand pieces, wrapped each piece into a chunk of clay, baked them and then scattered them into the rivers and oceans. And since Juno would be the one to invent the concept of in-laws, beyond explaining when their daughters would ask why they had no brothers they never gave it another thought.”

“Over time, those little bits of flesh merged with their clay coverings and became clams, as well as oysters, scallops, muscles, and cockles. Which the titans would then use as the bases for creating even more shelled creatures.”

Flashing Cora a smile, Mathias concluded with, “Now you can ask.”

With a thoughtful hum, Cora tilted her head from side to side before saying, “Well my question was answered, but…” she trailed off into a puzzled frown. Then after a bit of a silence, Mathias’ patience was rewarded when she finally asked, “Aren’t the river gods his sons?”

He shook his head and explained, “All of the river gods are his grandsons. When his first grandchild was fathered by Saturn all of his daughters decided that none of them would be openly pregnant unless Saturn's prophecy came true. I think only a very small handful were actually Saturn's though. But since no one saw the mothers pregnant, and Tethys was often openly pregnant, assumptions were made.”

Cora just stared at him wide eyed and slack jawed for a moment before breathing out in a hushed whisper, “Ceres’ saggy tits… I don’t even want to imagine what he would’ve done to his bastards.”

Mathias nodded grimly then patted her wing and tried to brighten the mood by asking, “That story was rather short, do you want to hear the follow up story?”

“What’s the follow up story?” she asked him warily.

Grinning, he said, “The Birth of Venus.”

“Let me guess,” she said bemusedly, “seafoam is not Saturn’s jizz, and he didn’t impregnate the ocean.”

Chuckling, he shook his head, answering her amusedly, “Seafoam existed long before Saturn’s defeat, and the ocean is not itself a person.”

Smirking now, she waggled an eyebrow and said in an innuendo laced voice, “Yeah, alright, then tell me about Venus’... Clam.”

Smiling, he leaned against her as he started his next tale, “Those first shellfish having been formed from a titan’s testicle did not have a natural end to their lifespan, and had tremendous innately magical cores. So over the centuries they grew to massive sizes and were devoured by monsters and sought out by mages and adventurers. Until they were all but extinct.”

“Years after Saturn's defeat and the famous tossing of his testes into the ocean. An oceanid by the name of Dione was swimming through some of the deeper, more forgotten parts of the ocean when she felt a fetal god just off her path. Deviating, she swam off to investigate. What she found was a scallop large enough that her and two of her sisters could have easily curled up inside with room to spare.”

“Remembering her father’s prophecy and recognizing the scallop as one of the ones that her parents had accidentally created. She at first wanted to destroy the scallop and the forming god. However, she hesitated because what if her attempts at preventing actually led to the prophecy being fulfilled. So she placed a hand where the feeling was strongest and took a closer look. What she found was a young god with the soul of a goddess. That had somehow been conceived purely with sperm.”

“It took her sometime to figure out how to help the little goddess but by the time she was a toddler Dione had managed to get her little body to match her soul. Throughout this time Dione did not leave that scallop's side, and the godling did not emerge from her shell.”

“For centuries Dione guarded and kept company the silent goddess that she had taken to calling Venus. It was only when she felt the scallop’s life fade completely away and Venus absorb the core that she urgently asked her to emerge.”

“Which is when Venus said her first words, ‘I’m scared.’”

“‘Scared of what?’ Dione asked.”

“After a bit longer of silence Venus spoke up again, ‘What if they don’t love me?’”

“‘Venus means to love and yearn for, how could they not love you?’ Dione responded patiently. After quite a bit more coaxing Dione eventually convinced Venus to let her bring her shell up out of the depths so that she could finally be born on the shores.”

“Once she finally emerged from her shell Jupiter, being the god that he is, instantly caught sight of her and for the first time felt fear from the beauty of a woman. He was certain that her face alone would cause a war amongst the unwed gods, so he quickly married her off to the first god he could think of.”

“However, the story of Venus and Volcan’s tragic marriage is a tale for another day,” concluding his narrative, Mathias rubbed his cheek against Cora’s shoulder as he waited to see if she had any questions.

After a few moments of silence, Cora thoughtfully asked, “Hmm, is that why some of her statues have her as a man?”

Mathias shrugged and slowly spoke, shifting through what he knew to give her his best guess, “Well, all gods can shape shift. Gender shifting might not be so easy, but her physical form was conceived as male, so maybe?”

Smirking again, Cora said, “So Venus came out of a scalloped clam. Or rather Venus gained her clam while living in a scallop!”

Choking on a laugh, Mathias shook his head and said, “Okay, I give up, what do you mean by clam?”

Chortling triumphantly, Cora cheerfully informed him, “It’s the same as hoo ha, box, snatch, twat, vajayjay, cunt and my personal favorite pussy!”

Mathias groaned trying not to laugh as he asked, “Let me guess, these words all have another meaning?”

“Well not all of them,” she happily admitted as she nudged him, trying to get him to go ahead and laugh while she spoke, “Box is something that you store things in, snatching is when you quickly grab something, and pussies are gentle house cats.”

Chuckling, he nudged her back as he teased, “Come on say it with me, vagina and penis.”

“Alright, alright,” she laughingly agreed before saying, “Pussy and cock.”

Giggling now, he breathlessly asked, “Is that like a cockle?”

“No, no,” Cora said with mock seriousness, “A cock is a male bird. Or would you prefer meat stick, dick, knob, shaft, one eyed monster or trouser snake?”

Snorting, he asked, “Trouser?

Grinning, Cora nodded and replied, “They’re clothing worn on the bottom half of humans, usually men.”

Then Cora made the mistake of looking too long at his mirth filled face and all conversation halted as they collapsed against each other giggling and laughing. Eventually they were able to calm themselves down again. But by that time it was time for Cora to head home, and for Mathias to return to his nest. Exchanging farewells they went their separate ways, as for a time Mathias had been able to truly forget his worries.

Chapter 19

The next few days passed in a painful blur of highs and lows. With the perpetual state of dread he found himself living in being broken up each day by Cora’s distracting and enjoyable visits. However, by the time Helen came by Mathias found himself to be quite exhausted. Although he was uncertain as to how well he’d be able to learn right now, going to learn more knots from her as well as talk about bones still seemed like a far better idea than not. Even if he wasn’t sure what exactly she wanted to discuss about bones.

He gave Helen the same smile that he’d been giving Cora all week. However Helen was a more observant bird than Cora. And so she noticed the hints of sleepless nights and stressful days within the pallor of his skin and the brittle edge to his smile. So with a gentle smile, she said, “You don’t have to force yourself, kid.”

Mathias gave her an abashed, “Okay,” as he mostly dropped his smile.

She gave him a reassuring pat as she moved in to remove his stitches. But while his upper arm was more than healed enough they decided to give his fin another week just to be safe.

Soon she was putting away her pliers and scissors and pulling out a few lengths of differently colored twine. Mathias visibly perked up even before she could ask, “Are you ready to learn some more knots?” At his tired yet enthusiastic nod she settled down so their shoulders were at the same heights and handed him one set of twine while she kept back the other set for herself.

She started off teaching him the slip knot, then quickly moved onto the square knot and figure eight knot before showing him the sheet bend. Which is when he got excited and exclaimed, “I know that one!”

Interested, she waited for a moment as he looked over the knot she had just tied, before verbally prodding him with a simple, “Oh?”

“Yes, I just didn’t know it had a name,” he said excitedly as he swiftly showed her his experience with this knot. “My parents used this knot to teach me how to make net bags out of kelp,” grinning he started his explanation with an eager happiness only for it to slowly slip into melancholic nostalgia. With a slight frown, he continued in a subdued voice, “They used to make nets when my parents were merlings, but then the pod leader's successor died in an accident and everyone was forbidden from making anything other than a bag or even allowing the fishermen to have nets.”

Reminded of how much he missed his family, he stared sadly at the knotted twine within his hands. Unsure as to what to say to that, Helen shifted a little closer to him as she wrapped her wing comfortingly around him.

After a little while, Helen broke the silence by asking, “Are there any other knots you know but don’t know the name for?” After he shook his head, she softly asked, “Do you want to continue, or put up the twine?” Mutely, he handed her his twine. After putting their twine away, she searchingly asked, “Can you tell me about your family?”

Sighing, Mathias swallowed a few times before asking in a slightly choked voice, “What kind of bones did you want to talk about?”

Helen gave him a stern look for a few moments before gently chiding him, “Mathias, avoidance is often not the answer.” But at his pleading look, she relented and with a sigh of her own, gruffly asked him, “What can you tell me about a mer’s skeleton?”

Mathias contemplated quietly for a while before slowly and softly answering, “Our spines are, spongy? Soft? I’m not sure what the right word is. But the bones of our spine are lighter, more flexible and better able to grow back than the rest of our bones. They’re similar to cartilage, but not quite the same.”

Helen listened with quite a bit of interest so she quickly asked, “What exactly do you mean by grow back?”

With a weak chuckle and a small smile, Mathias continued to softly speak, “Well I could lose up to half of my tail, and if I lived I could eventually grow the whole thing back. But if I lost an arm, then the arm is just gone. Or something could take a chunk out of my back, and the spine, surrounding flesh, sensation and mobility would eventually come back. Or if it was completely crushed then the spine would quickly pop back into shape and sensation and mobility would slowly return.” Then he shrugged and flashed her a smile as he admitted, “Merfolk spines are just weird.”

Laughing, she nodded agreeing, “Yeah they’re weird, but they’d make a lot of people jealous.”

Nodding thoughtfully, he agreeably said, “Yeah, I can see that. So maybe don’t let any wizards know.”

Patting his shoulder, she nodded and said, “I’ll keep that tidbit to myself.”

He gave her a small smile before hmming and saying, “We also have a few ribs in our hip area.”

Blinking, she looked to his lap as she baffledly asked, “What for?”

Shrugging one shoulder, he explained, “Well I couldn’t sit up without the muscle attachments. And it’s suspected that it’s one of the things that allows us to swim like a seahorse when we need or want to.” Helen nodded encouragingly as his explanation made sense. He looked Helen over thoughtfully for a few moments more before saying hesitantly, “Our ribs also have many joints, and the sternum is mostly made of cartilage… Other than that I think our skeletons aren’t all that different than you might expect.”

Even if Helen still thought that talking about his family would help him feel better, she had to admit to herself that he had perked up quite a bit.

Shifting into teacher mode, she handed him another box of meaty hand pies as she explained to him how to relocate a dislocation, and how to immobilize a suspected break.

Mathias hung onto her every word as he ate. Once they were both finished he passed back the box and gave her a sudden hug. Startled, she nevertheless patted his back comfortingly until he slipped wordlessly away.

~~~~~

The next day was truly a dreadful day. Mathias knew it as he woke up clinging to his nest. He knew it as he preemptively coiled around his eggs. And he also knew that there was no escaping. Not without doing things he was unwilling to do. He would neither abandon his nest, nor risk his loved ones being the ones to take him down if he struck out at her. So, he was stuck with it being a truly awful day.

When she arrived he did his best to just get through without thinking too much. At least about what was going on, that is. And to a certain extent he succeeded. He thought about his mother’s stories, his father’s hunting lessons, and Helen’s medical lessons. He thought about anything and everything to keep his mind off the here and now. He kept his responses brief and his face as blank as he could.

But when she got done using him for her pleasure and his body was fully back in his control he could not help the sick shudder that went through him, nor the look of revulsion that twisted his face. And this of course angered her. He knew it would anger her, but he could not control himself to that extent.

Her enraged shouts set his ears to ringing and as he twisted about to flee to his nest she started hitting him with her powerful tail. He coiled up with his fin and torso tucked protectively in while her tail slammed repeatedly against him. He hoped that someday he’d have enough self control not to anger her. Because she was not a variable that he had any control of. Nor were the eggs, or the harpies, just himself. That was all he could direct and somewhat predict, himself. So, he had to get better at it.

Eventually, she tired herself out and left without a word. Mathias tensely waited awhile, then once he was reasonably sure she was gone he relaxed and passed out.

He awoke once again with a start and painfully uncoiled himself. Flinching, he examined his tail to find a few places where the skin had split open. Only a couple of those spots were bad though, but they were right over lines that had recently healed. With a dejected sigh he got to the laborious task of making thread and stitching up when the only parts of him that didn’t hurt were numb. Thankfully some of the numb parts were also where he needed to stitch.

He had absently noticed some shadows circling overhead several times while he worked, so once he had tended his needle and put it up he gingerly and with a tail that wasn’t working quite right, made his way over and up.

Emerging from the water he gazed up at an anxiously waiting Cora. She started to hop out of his way only for him to brokenly ask, “Help me up?” Coming closer again, she held a foot out to him. He grabbed it with both hands as with a grunt she dragged him out of the water.

Once Mathias had climbed and wiggled up into her arms and was clinging to her, she wrapped her wings protectively around his trembling form and rocked from side to side. After a moment she spoke up, “There’s something Helen told me I need to say to you, and it’s true so you better listen carefully.”

He nodded against her neck to let her know he heard her, so with a worried sigh, she said into his ear, “It’s not your fault.” With a sob he clutched her tighter as her words seemed to give him a tiny escape. Patting his back she continued to rock him as she soothingly and confidently repeated as if it were a mantra, “It’s not your fault. It’s not, at all, none of it. It’s not your fault.”

Chapter 20

After a time Mathias’ sobbing diminished without fully going away so Cora switched from trying to build him up to singing him a soothing lullaby. After a while he relaxed and fell asleep in her arms. Slowly she stopped rocking and singing and just held him.

She kept watch over his eggs as he slept peacefully within her embrace. For several hours nothing disturbed the water at any depths that she could see, and then finally he awoke. “Cora?” he mumbled groggily.

“Yeah I’m right here,” she reassured him as she switched her gaze from the sea to his face.

“Can’t really see you,” he complained as he blinked blearily at her fuzzy face.

Frantically, she asked, “Ah! What’s wrong? Should I go get Helen?”

With a tiny smile, he sleepily explained, “S’fine, just sleep gunk.”

Curiously, she leaned in closer to get a better look at the thick clear gel he was trying to blink out of his eyes. With an almost shy smirk, he captured her lips in a kiss. With a happy little sigh, she returned the kiss with a little bit of tongue.

Pulling back, she asked suspiciously, “Can you really not see?”

“Everything is blurry,” he affirmed before finding her hand by touch and bringing it to his chest huskily saying, “Touch me.”

She looked over his back that was mottled in purple and blue bruises and uncertainly asked, “Are you sure that’s a good idea right now?”

He nuzzled into her neck kissing and licking her slowly as he responded, “It feels good when you touch and I want to feel good. Please?”

Slowly, she ran her hand from his chest to his neck and back again before hesitantly stating, “I should really go get Helen.”

Finding her nipples, he started tweaking them as he softly suggested, “Later.” Then he drew his teeth dangerously along her collarbone.

Moaning, she held still for a moment and then huskily agreed, “Yeah okay, later.” Making a triumphantly aroused sound, he pulled her head down into another deep kiss. Running her tongue eagerly over his, Cora pressed her chest to his as she gently caressed everything she could reach.

Pulling back, he breathlessly asked, “How do you like to be touched?”

Chasing his lips, she quickly answered, “Roughly painfully aggressively.” Mathias grabbed her chest and roughly squeezed her breast only to have her pull back and say, “Yes, harder is good too!” So he shifted his claws into place and kneaded roughly over her exposed skin. Moaning, she gripped his shoulders as she throatily asked, “How do you like touching?”

Closing his eyes, he let out a happy little sigh as he took a moment to enjoy himself before answering, “I like to be touched with confident desire.” At his words she pressed herself back into his chest and started nipping and sucking along his shoulder and neck. With a shuddering moan, he moved his hands roughly over her back.

It didn’t take long for them to work each other into the heights of arousal. Mathias was aware of how banged up he was though, and so put a hand on top of Cora’s head firmly pressing down while he panted out, “Mouth, cock.”

A mischievous glint came and went in Cora’s eyes as she briefly thought about playing dumb. Instead she eagerly swooped down while telling him, “Lay down.” He carefully laid down, letting out a groan of pleasure as she sucked his shaft into her mouth. Cora gagged only briefly as his cock suddenly surged into her throat. But then she was happily slurping and licking as Mathias laid there with an arm thrown over his eyes. His abused tail only twitched a few times as he got close to cumming, the only real hint he gave her was the sudden desperate tone to his moaning. Pressing her hands to him, she shoved her face down all the way as she desperately swallowed his cum down.

As his penis slipped back into its cavity, she sat back up licking her lips. Then with more than a bit of amusement in her voice, she scolded, “You should warn a girl before you cum.”

Chuckling at her tone, he blandly replied, “I’ll do that next time.” Then he moved his arm from his face and still bleary eyed, he let out a growl that he’d seen get her pleasantly shuddering in the past before calling her over with, “Now bring me your spicy pussy.”

Letting out a cooing moan, she swiftly moved to straddle his face. Grabbing her butt, he shifted and pulled her down until he could get his tongue on her little knob and raised ridge of flesh. As her tail fanned over his chest he realized that this was a new angle for him.

With a chuckle, he scratched at her back side as he suckled up one side of the V and then down the other. Happily he listened to her sounds of pleasure before making them louder by finally capturing her clit with his tongue. Holding her firmly in place, he tugged and twisted her clit with his tongue as he drove her to loudly squeal out. Then once her wings started beating arrhythmically, he pressed his tongue up and rocked it back and forth over that spot until she started pulling away.

Helping her lift up he smugly asked, “Do you want more?”

Letting out a shaky laugh, she quickly said, “No, no. I need to be able to fly tonight. And it’s already late…” Stepping away, she mumbled, “I’ll have to tell Helen to come in the morning. I hope she’s not mad at me.”

Rolling carefully onto his belly, he said reassuringly, “Just tell her that I seduced you.”

“You did, didn’t you?” she said with amused exasperation.

“Yep,” he said with a fair approximation of cheekiness including the smile that he flashed at her.

Chuckling, she leaned down to pet his face as she softly said, “Good night Mathias.”

Kissing the heel of her hand, he responded with, “Good night Cora, fly safe.” Then he pushed himself into the water and after taking a second to properly blink the sleep gunk out of his eyes, he made his painful way back to his nest. Curling up to sleep, he wondered why the good feelings didn’t last longer.

~~~~~

That night was full of his worst nightmares yet. He woke up crying and trembling several times, sure that he could still hear Chloe’s voice in the waves. Until eventually he forced himself to stay awake.

The next morning, Helen did not scold him as he expected. She looked him over, popped a few vertebrae into proper alignment, fed him and gave him some medical advice. Then after stuffing his mouth full of candy, they parted ways before the boulder top could get too submerged.

A few days later Cora told him that Clara had at seven eggs finished laying her clutch. His feelings were mixed on the matter, he was going to have seven children, daughters that he was hardly going to get to see. He wouldn’t even get to meet them for two years. But they would also grow up in a safer, happier environment then the ten he was tending.

He smiled wistfully as he pondered over this news, then he remembered something that he should make sure they knew. “Oh yeah,” he said sadly, “when my eggs are getting ready to hatch I won’t leave the nest at all.”

“Oh?” Cora asked excitedly, “How long’ll that take?”

“Hmm,” Mathias leaned against her as he pondered before answering, “With ten of them, it could take nearly two weeks from first sign to last hatching. Or it might be as little as three hours.”

Nodding thoughtfully, she rubbed the top of his head as she assured him, “We’ll find a way to keep you fed if it lasts more’n a day.”

Letting out a genuine laugh, he shook his head and reassured her, “While I’ll appreciate it if you do, I’ll also be fine if you don’t.”

“Oooh,” she giggled excitedly as she bounced beside him, “I can’t wait to meet your babies!” Smiling, he agreed.

For the next month and some change, life for Mathias would follow a pattern. Every night would be full of terrible nightmares. Then the day would follow a set weekly pattern. Chloe would show up and command him. And while he got better at not angering her, he could not force himself to please her either. So each encounter would end with another small or medium wound of some sort. Then Cora would show up and help him put his shattered self back together. Usually with gentle comfort followed by physical pleasure. Sometimes it would include a new tasty treat. Then for the next five days they’d hang out for an hour or two each day eating together, flirting with each other and exchanging stories. Then Helen would show up on the last day. Help him remove any stitches that needed to go, and then teach and feed him. Only for the cycle to start all over again the next day. And over that time, his scales grew back. Only they grew back a dark, dull gray, with maybe a little bit of color or shine on the outer edges.

Until one day when Cora dropped by, Mathias simply didn’t show up.

Chapter 21

In the middle of the night, right after calming down from yet another nightmare Mathias noticed one of his eggs bouncing about. Stooping low he eagerly watched it with his head bobbing along. Then he turned his gaze to the other nine eggs. The fry in them were all fully formed and occasionally moving, but none were quite so active as this one. With a happy little smile, he lay on the edge of the nest to watch and wait.

Morning came, and in time a shadow flew over, but Mathias didn’t notice. He was busy darting to and fro about his nest to watch his eggs from every angle. That first one had a few splits in the membrane, but nothing long enough for it to emerge from. And two more had started to bounce.

About midday, roughly twelve hours after it had started, the first one managed to get a torn edge into its mouth and quickly chewed its way free. “That’s the way, little one.” Mathias murmured happily and then, giving a reassuring hum, he slowly moved his hand towards his emerald and silver offspring. It didn’t notice at first as it devoured its first home. But then it seemed to sort of sniff before darting over to start nibbling the dead skin off his knuckles. “Oh,” Mathias said with a chuckle as he realized that it had been a few months since he’d been able to visit the cleaner fish.

Throughout the day and into the night Mathias stayed focused on his spawn. The next morning just as the third fry was finding its way free of its casing and as Mathias was shredding the mildering blanket to give chunks of to the other two, a shadow briefly hovered overhead and then something small splashed into the water. The sound caused Mathias to briefly glance up. Dismissing it as a potential threat he ignored the thing floating down until it got close enough to snatch up.

He tucked away the remains of the blanket as he examined what was now in his hands. Laughing delightedly, he untied the rock from the tails of the two squirrels and held one in his mouth as he ripped off small mouthfuls of the other for his fry. By the time the three were full there was not much but the skeleton left of the first one, and the second was more than two thirds gone. Still, he contentedly ate the remains as they snuggled sleepily into his hair.

Over the next two days the harpies made several air drops to deliver small prey to him, and more and more of the eggs worked on hatching. And then, Chloe approached.

There were only four eggs left that had not hatched. One had very nearly emerged, two had their eggs starting to split, and the last one had just started bouncing that morning. But when they heard their father let out a low threatening growl before coiling protectively over them, the loose fry abandoned the discarded scales and blanket shreds they had been chewing on to dart into his hair, while those still trying to hatch held very still.

At first Chloe approached cautiously thinking that something might actually be attacking him. But when she saw nothing she swiftly swam closer and asked intrigued, “Are the eggs hatching?”

But when his fin raised threateningly fanned out to its full spread, she backed up huffing out in frustration. All merfolk knew how dangerous it was to approach a merman with hatching eggs. Even mates should approach first time fathers cautiously. “Fine!” she snapped before saying grouchily, “I’ll be back within an hour.”

As she swam further away, Mathias slowly calmed down, but he did not emerge from his coils. Once his growling stopped the fry cautiously went back to finding anything that smelled of protein to chew on, while the eggs exuberantly continued their efforts to hatch. By the time their mother returned and their father’s growling resumed there were only three left in the eggs.

Chloe swam high above him, and dropped an octopus upon him as she turned to swiftly swim away. She was sure now that her body would stop insisting at least for a few days that she go feed her mate. But, Mathias did not eat octopus.

He had a common octopus as a pet when he was small. It rode on his back, and he fed it and taught it tricks until one day it disappeared. He had refused to eat octopus ever since. Chloe, as one of the main merlings to mock him over this, surely knew that.

Once he was sure that she was gone, Mathias emerged from his coils to find out what had been twitching on top of his tail. Finding not just an octopus, but one that was the same size and species as his erstwhile pet, he felt an upwelling of anger and grief that he’d never experienced before. Sighing aggrievedly he shooed the pair of fry that had come to investigate back into the nest before nudging the injured cephalopod onto his fin so he could deposit it behind a nearish rock. Then in a somewhat subdued mood he went back to tending his youngsters.

The harpies airdropped him food two more times that day, and then as the sun was setting the last fry finally managed to free itself and devour its egg casing and the organ meat that he had saved it from that last big eared animal that the harpies had dropped for them.

Smiling contentedly, he gently ran his fingers over his youngsters. Only the first one had turned out emerald and silver like him. The rest were about three different shades of green with pale blue undersides. And so close to their hatching it was easy to see which order they had hatched in, as the ones to hatch first had had more time to eat and grow. With the oldest being close to seven inches long and the most recently hatched being just a little over four. Sometimes like with his brothers and himself the last to hatch stayed the smallest, but that wasn’t always the case. Like with many things, he’d just have to wait and see how they developed.

Letting out a huge yawn, he gave a low chirrup urging the fry into his hair as he curled up in the nest. Not having fallen back asleep since the first one started bouncing around he was quite exhausted. Thankfully he was too exhausted to dream as he fell into a deep sleep. With the fry’s little forms burrowing seamlessly into his hair.

~~~~~

The next morning, hours before the sun rose, Mathias was awoken by the fry fluttering their fins against his belly as they nibbled curiously upon the bladderwrack. With a small sleepy smile he shifted to give them access to more of it. Then as the gray light of predawn seeped into the ocean waters Mathias chirruped to call them back into his hair before making his slow way towards the shore line.

As he crawled along the coral bed, keeping to a pace that wouldn’t dislodge his fry, he kept an eye out for places where small crustaceans and fish might be hiding amongst the stone-like skeletal structures just in case the submerged sandy beach turned out to be a bust.

As he reached the sandy zone he looked around in amazement at all the activity that he’d been in too much of a hurry to pay attention to the last couple of times he was here. He could see small fuzzy feelers darting in and out of the sand, and bitty little fish darting about. Here and there he spotted a few crabs and starfish moving around.

He hand-walked further into the sand as his tail swayed behind him keeping his buoyancy neutral. When he felt something wiggling under a palm he grabbed that handful of dirt and brought it up for examination. As the water washed the sand away, a few tiny crabs that quickly skittered away and some delicate pink tellins that futilely tried to burrow further into his hand were revealed.

The littlest fry darted over to his hand and circled around his open palm before moving in and mouthing at one of the tiny clams. Mathias chuckled at the sight, they were small enough to get into hir mouth albeit not very far, but even the biggest did not yet have the strength to break the shell. Carefully he used his pointer claw to crush the ones that ze wasn’t playing with, and then once that little shellfish was abandoned he crushed it too. Soon a couple others had braved the waters to nibble food out of his hand.

Once the trio had picked his hand free he called them back to his hair and continued towards the shore. Normally the early hunts would happen close to the nest in an area that their father had made safe for fry and left full of abundant small prey. But Mathias did not have that luxury, so he would have to try a different method.

He finally got near the water line and flopped down onto the sand. As with every time his hands had hit the ground, fish darted up and a very short distance away before burrowing into the sand again. Grinning, he turned his body into a circle and then reached out as far as he could and slapped it down as he let out a whistle to his fry. As the bitty fish darted away from his hand his fry flowed out of his hair and after them. Although it was easy for a merling to forget what the chirps and whistles meant as they grew, a fry’s knowledge of them was instinctive. So as a subadult Mathias had made sure to relearn them.

Happily, Mathias watched his little ones chase after the even littler bottom feeders with very limited success. Then when the prey had all burrowed into the sand again, he’d slap his fin or hand startling more of them back into motion. This continued for a few hours, until a harpy walking loudly through the surf towards them scared the fry into his hair.

With a delighted smile, Mathias carefully twisted around before pushing his head up out of the water to greet her. “Cora!” he called out happily as he watched her awkwardly stand in the surf. Her legs were much straighter than normal making her stand taller than he was used to, and her tail was tilted up to keep it out of the water. The sight made him want to giggle.

Easily infected by his good mood, Cora returned his grin and said as she held another long eared creature in her little arms, “I’m glad I found you.” Then she peered confusedly into the water as she bemusedly mumbled, “I thought I saw your babies too though.”

Chuckling, he looked up with his eyes only as he tried to bring her attention to the twitching lump in his hair at the top of his head, he said amusedly, “You did.”

Peering closely at his head, Cora let out a startled squawk and said, “Oh, she doesn’t look happy. Is she alright there?”

Mathias hummed affirmatively before saying, “Ze won’t be hurt by the air, ze is just a little unhappy about being trapped. Give me a minute though.”

Dropping carefully back into the water, he moved the rest of the way to Cora and grabbed her foot. When he let out a little chirp the fry exploded from his hair to swarm around Cora’s feet. After counting to make sure all ten of them were busy he sat up to see Cora holding very very still while giggling.

Once Mathias’ head and shoulders were exposed once more she titteringly asked, “Why’re they nibbling my toes?”

Shrugging, he replied, “Looking for dead skin and parasites most likely.”

Looking alarmed now, she looked down as she fretfully asked, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Mathias hummed and nodded before explaining, “It’s most fry’s first meal, and it’s how their instinct driven minds get to know someone.”

Smiling, she shook her head as she held out the creature in her hands. “I brought another rabbit, I’m sure it’s tastier.”

Smirking, he took the rabbit as he mischievously said, “I don’t know about that, harpies are pretty tasty.” Cora laughed at that as he ripped open the rabbits belly.

When the drops of blood hit the water the youngsters swarmed back over to him and Cora arched an eyebrow and smirked as if to say, “See?” Shaking his head at her, he carefully pulled out the liver and dropped it for them. Then as they were mobbing over that he carefully teased out the rest of the innards.

“Oh,” Cora said in surprise as she watched, “you’re feeding them differently now.”

Blinking, he gave her a startled look as he incredulously asked, “You could see that?” At her nod he proceeded to explain, “Before they were kinda ravenous so I needed to make sure they didn’t choke. Now it’s best if they can work on their coordination and strength.”

Pursing his lips in thought, he watched them eat the soft liver before slipping them the rest of the innards. With a grateful smile he let her know, “Honestly, I didn’t expect them to be quite so hungry. So thanks for all the extra food.”

She gave the fish shaped babies a soft smile before murmuring, “No problem.”

Humming happily, he watched the waters as he dug into the rabbits remains. Once he had gotten to the point of licking his hands clean Cora spoke up, “So are these good hunting grounds?”

“They’re…” Mathias started to answer but then hesitated as he thought it through more fully. Finally he continued once again, “It’s a really good hunting ground for now, but they’ll outgrow it soon. But I can’t safely take them elsewhere until they’ve grown hands and gotten efficient enough with their hands to keep a good grip.”

“Ah,” Cora asked dazedly, “when will those things happen?”

Smiling, he shrugged again, “I’m not sure how long this’ll be a viable hunting ground, I’ve never heard of anyone taking their fry this close to the beach to hunt before. But their hands, those should start growing in… in about three months. But how long it’ll take them to get proficient with them, that’s kinda hard to guess.”

“Hmmm,” Cora said thoughtfully, “will you want to move when that happens?”

Mathias gave her a bittersweet smile as he softly admitted, “Yes.” Grabbing her hand, he gave it a reassuring squeeze as he continued, “But then my family will know I’m alive and they won’t let me starve.” At her sad smile, he caressed her hand with his thumb before asking cheerily, “Do you want to help the fry hunt?”

Visibly perking up, she eagerly asked, “How do I do that?”

“It’s simple,” he replied, “I’ll make a circle around you and the fry with my body, and then every time I raise my arm I want you to stomp a foot.” At her enthusiastic nod, he slipped back into the water and watched the fry finish their meal before raising his arm for her. With a giggle, she stomped down watching the bottom feeders jump and scatter with the fry in hot pursuit. Slowly the fry got better but all too soon the fun had to end as the tide receded.

Chapter 22

As Mathias settled into the nest for only the second night, he found it weird. It seemed like he’d been sleeping on the edge of this makeshift nest for years, even though it’d only been months and now he was inside it, with his small fry curling up against his soft belly. He shifted around until he was lying on his left side with his body and tail between them and the sides of the nest. Leaning at an angle he helped his fry settle back onto his belly. As he carefully caressed the babies he found himself humming a familiar lullaby. As he hummed he realized that even though they’d taught him what a lullaby was, his parents had never sung anything with words to him or his siblings, and he wondered why. But the thought did not last long as he soon found himself drifting off to sleep.

Unfortunately that also did not last long as the oldest of his nightmares intruded into his sleep. He had lain there peacefully sleeping for a couple of hours before the groaning and twitching started, however this itself lasted for another solid hour before he screamed and rolled, dumping the fry into the nest as he swiftly moved to rapidly circle the nest while whimpering and panting fearfully. The fry, after an initial moment of startlement, simply settled to watch him, having already gotten somewhat used to their father’s nighttime activities while still in the egg. Once he was able to mostly snap out of it and cling to the side of the nest, and before he could try to reassure himself or them, they arose in a cloud pressing themselves to his chest and shoulders.

As he touched each one reassuringly he was at first puzzled by the faint thrumming sound that he could hear. But then he realized that it was his fry’s immature vocal chords as they tried to hum for him. His heart broke once he realized that they were trying to comfort him. Then with a shuddering sigh he got everyone settled back into the nest and as he caressed them comfortingly this time he softly sang the lullaby about little birds.

Although he did not dump them again that night, he did awaken screaming or crying twice more. Each time the fry would thrum at him until he sang them back to sleep, but even though he did not manage a proper sleep, as the gloom in the water lifted he realized that it was one of his better nights in well over a month. And so as he watched them nibble on the ragged bladderwrack he softly whispered, “Thank you little ones.”

Giving the ragged seaweed a closer look he realized that they were going through it far faster than he expected, so he wondered if perhaps the waters amongst the dead coral was missing something that wasn’t obvious to his eyes. Or if perhaps it was exuding something he could not detect. Either way, he would need to seek out more seaweed to plant in his nest within the next couple of days. But perhaps sooner would be better.

So that morning, after he chirped his fry into his hair, he spent a few hours searching the coral for clumps of edible seaweeds that he could carefully transfer back to his nest. It would take time out of their hunting forays, but he figured a little time lost every day instead of a whole day lost once or twice a week would be better for them.

When he would find a suitable looking clump he’d carefully break it off of the coral or dig up what it was attached to until he had his arms full. Once his arms were full his fry flowed out of his hair and into the swaying seaweeds within his arms. He gave them a brief bemused look as they started nibbling upon their mobile snack. Then with a shake of his head he swam them back to their nest.

Once there, he rearranged the worse for the wear bladderwrack around the edge of the nest so that the newer seaweed could be arranged in the middle. As he was doing so, he narrated what he was doing as well as telling them about the bladderwrack. It would be a while before they would be able to speak, but he knew if they never heard anyone speak around them it would take longer. Then he repeated the process as he buried the chunks of coral skeleton and rocks leaving the various weeds exposed.

Finally done, he cheerfully asked his youngsters, “Are you ready to go hunting?” At their complete lack of a response, he chuckled softly before calling them once more into his hair and slowly making his way back to the sandy shallows.

After lying down in a circle and before calling his fry out once more, he again noticed the fuzzy feelers poking up out of the sand and he took a few moments to watch them. “Those little feelers,” he said softly to the fry, “I wonder what they’re doing… They keep disappearing back into the sand. Are they grabbing something? Is it food?”

Soon he gave into the impatiently wiggling forms and whistled as he slapped the ground once more. This time however when the bottom feeders had burrowed back into the sand he waited and just watched his fry. A few of them worked together to try and get at the tiny fish, while others attacked the waving feelers, and the rest darted around snapping at the water.

Confusedly, he watched the snappers, it was an activity that he so far hadn’t observed in the nest. Was there really something in the water out here that he couldn’t see? With a shrug, he slapped his tail against the ground to scare up the tiny fish once more and proceeded to give advice and encouragement as they learned how to hunt.

When Cora approached, Mathias put the hunting games on hold and called back the fry so that they could go to greet her. As soon as they were swarming her feet once more Mathias sat up and curled his tail loosely around them.

“Hello!” they said simultaneously before exchanging sheepish grins.

“So,” Cora asked, “is everyone healthy?”

Mathias let out a thoughtful hum, as he peered into the water. Then after a long enough pause to start making Cora anxious he asked, “Can you see anything in the water?”

“In the water?” she asked dumbfoundedly before looking around and answering confusedly, “There’s fish, and crabs and starfish.”

Mathias shook his head and said, “No just…” having a hard time articulating his question, he sighed, shrugged and gave it his best shot, “just in the water. Something different about the water here and from where my nest is?”

Still with that confused baffled look on her face, she tugged her strap to make sure her bag was centered over her back and then leaned over to squint at the water. After a few minutes of squinting and moving her head around to look at the water from different angles she finally slowly spoke, “Well… there are a lot more specks in the water here. Probably floating sand or something.”

Peering confusedly at the water himself, he slowly muttered, “Then wouldn’t they just eat the sand?”

Pulling herself mostly upright, she blurted out, “Why would they do that?”

Shaking his head, he replied, “I’m just trying to figure out why they’re eating so much more seaweed than I was taught they would.”

Shrugging, she reasonably pointed out, “Maybe they just really like seaweed.”

“Maybe,” Mathias responded doubtfully.

“Hmm,” she asked while peering down at the exuberant fry, “do they otherwise seem happy and healthy?” Perking up, he happily nodded, so with a smile she told him, “Then try not to worry about it and keep doing your best.”

“I’ll try,” he mumbled shyly as she pulled her bag around to the front.

Pulling out the crock she handed it to him as she gushed reassuringly, “You seem to be doing a terrific job from what I can see.” Winking and pulling the lid free she continued teasingly, “And I can see a lot.” He giggled at that as she dropped the spoon into the organ gravy and wild grains and then took the crock back so he could eat.

“Thanks Cora,” he said warmly.

The first bite he blew on to cool then dropped it into the water for the fry, before taking a bite for himself. Every third bite he would feed to the fry, while the rest went into his belly. Cora was a bit disappointed that he was no longer even pretending to be clumsy, but she understood that his focus was elsewhere now. Once Cora had stowed away the crock and returned the bag to her back they resumed the hunting lessons, with Cora gleefully helping out until they had to part ways once more.

Chapter 23

This new mostly happier routine continued for much of the week, only to break when Helen showed up alongside Cora to remove the stitching from his lower back and give his fry an examination.

After placing his fry safely in Cora’s shadow, Mathias arched his back up out of the water to show the two parallel marks where Chloe had clipped him while he fled to his nest nearly two weeks ago. As the only part of him that was above the water at the moment was that section of his back, he could neither see nor hear the harpies. His only real awareness as to what they were doing was the slightly painful tugging sensation as the stitches were removed. And then Helen was patting his back to let him know that she was done.

Calling his youngsters back to himself, he eased back into the water before twisting around and sitting up. The water this time was not quite as deep so much of his chest was exposed. Flashing them a smile he scooped up the biggest one, which was also the emerald green one into the crook of his arm and with a steadying hand lifted hir partially out of the water. “This one is Biggest,” he explained proudly as Helen leaned in to examine the now nearly ten inch long fry.

He had nicknamed them by size instead of hatching order, not that there was too much of a difference. He figured though that by the time their sizes became a little blurry he’d have a better handle of their personalities and so have better nicknames for them.

Helen started to reach out and then paused and asked, “May I touch her?” At Mathias’ nod she reached out and did a more careful examination. Then in order Mathias introduced them to Second through Ninth and Smallest, who had all grown to a similar degree to Biggest.

As Mathias let Smallest slip back into the water, Helen brought out a box of pastry wrapped shrimp and slowly said, “Well, I’ve never examined merfolk fry before. But, their eyes are bright, their scales shiny, their tongues a healthy pink and their ribs and spines aren’t protruding, so as far as I can tell they’re healthy.” Then as he dropped a few of the small pastries into the water, she said leadingly, “But Cora tells me that you’re worried about how much seaweed they’ve been eating?”

“Umm,” Mathias said as he organized his thoughts. Popping a few of the small things into his mouth, he chewed and swallowed before going on, “I’m not so much worried, at least not anymore as I am, confused, and curious.” At her encouraging nod, he continued to explain, “The seaweed I’ve been planting in the nest is for them to eat at night when it’s not safe for them to leave the nest, but they’ve been eating more of it then I was taught that fry would. And I’ve noticed them acting like they’re eating something invisible when we’re in the shallows, which I don’t really see them doing when we’re at the nest. But that doesn’t make sense. What invisible thing could there be for them to eat?”

“Hmm,” Helen said thoughtfully, then as Mathias continued to share his meal with his babies she spoke, “The year that Cora and her sisters were conceived we were hired by a centaur band. I learned quite a bit about medicine while working with them, because centaurs were taught medicine by their main creator Mercury.” Mathias watched her attentively, her lessons didn’t normally come with a backstory, so this was a new thing for him.

Helen chuckled at her attentive audience before continuing, “One of the things I learned from them is that the world is covered in tiny invisible things that can only sometimes be seen by very small things. Some of these tiny things are harmful and are what causes illness, but most are not. Most of them are animals that are beneficial to the world around them. Now if there are too many of them or too few of them then that can cause more harm than the harmful tiny things. Such as skin disorders. Most skin disorders are caused by having too many skin animals, only a few are caused by not having enough skin animals.”

Mathias pursed his lips perturbed, he now had an inkling as to what had caused the coral blight, but he thought that the only one he’d be able to convince was Tito, and Tito tended to get through life by constantly being underestimated so he didn’t see how that could help keep the blight from happening again.

He sighed and shook his head. He’d just have to let Tito know when he could and in the meantime focus on keeping himself and his offspring healthy so that he could try and convince the next pod that they moved to, to not overwhelm the tiny animals in their nesting grounds.

At the pair of worried looks he was getting, he flashed a reassuring smile and said, “Thanks, that actually answers quite a number of questions.”

Then as he resumed his meal, Helen continued to tell the both of them some other interesting things that she’d learned from the centaurs. Once he had finished, Helen took her box back, finished her lesson and then bade them farewell before wading back to where she could properly take flight. Whereas Cora, Mathias and the fry spent the rest of the day exactly like they had the previous five.

~~~~~

The next evening when they returned home, Mathias found a dead common octopus in the center of his nest. Seeing as this one was dead, Mathias let out a sad resigned sigh and let the fry have it. Then he settled himself into the nest with them as he consoled himself that at least he hadn’t had to deal directly with Chloe today.

His relief though turned out to be premature.

Once again something awoke him from the grips of a nightmare, this time however he did not feel relief upon waking but instead an escalating inexplicable sense of dread. Just as he was shifting to hide his little ones beneath himself he heard a voice that identified the source of his dread.

“Finally,” Chloe’s dulcet voice rang out, “I get to see my fry.”

Stiffening, Mathias swallowed back a growl of anger as he thought, ‘How are they your fry? All you did was produce them, abandon them at the shoreline and torture their father. You should have no claim to them.’ But he knew, as little as he liked it, they were technically hers too, and in the eyes of everyone in authority she would have more claim to them than him. Unless she publicly proved herself an unfit mother. Because his words would be as nothing to them compared to hers. So he did not voice his thoughts and forced himself to hold still as she clumsily tried to call them over.

After a moment he grew worried that she’d turn her temper on them and so with a shaky hand he patted the edge of the nest and whistled. “Well at least you’re good for something,” she grumbled as they sleepily swam to the spot indicated and waited. Then she held herself low, looking over the fry in the filtered moonlight with a critical eye.

Eventually she straightened up and looked towards Mathias who was mostly succeeding in not cringing away from her and said, “A few of them are on the small side, make sure you take proper care of them so they don’t wind up scrawny like your brother.” Mathias refrained from rolling his eyes, as he knew it would be useless to point out that some people were just built to be small. But then he flinched as she continued, “Did you enjoy the gift I left you?”

He swallowed a couple of times before he managed to choke out, “I don’t eat octopus.”

She let out an irritated growl that had the fry darting into his hair as she threateningly asked, “Did you waste good food over a silly childish foible?”

Letting out a fearful whimper, he pressed himself into the side of the nest as he tremblingly rushed out an answer, “Th-the f-fr-fry ate it!”

Chloe’s shoulders relaxed slightly as she soothingly said, “I suppose that is acceptable.” Mathias was not soothed at all and within moments she said the words that he’d been dreading to hear all night, “Let’s make love so I can go to bed then.”

He let out a soft moan of distress before frantically stammering out, “B-but the fr-fry!”

Rolling her eyes, she huffed out, “Then deposit them in the nest already and come on out.”

Between his rapid breathing and fearful whimpers it took him a few tries to get the fry out of his hair and into the nest, and by that point Chloe’s patience had worn out. So she grabbed a fistful of his hair right at the back of his head and dragged him quickly out of the nest. Mathias’ hands jerked towards hers momentarily before he fearfully clasped them together as he focused on not knocking into his upset fry as he was dragged away from them.

Soon Chloe let go and looked at him expectantly. Mathias tried, he tried to move towards her, he tried to touch her, he tried to initiate things. But especially with his offspring’s fearful squeaks still ringing through the waters he could not. So once again Chloe gave that dreaded order and his body moved against his will.

Then his own distressed whimpers and moans interwove with the fearful distressed squeaking coming from the nest. Truthfully it did not last long, but to Mathias it felt like it lasted ages. Once her command was no longer holding sway over his body he went limp. And as always Chloe found his obvious distaste for touching her angering and so she struck out at him, sending him floating in the opposite direction as she twisted around and swam off to the kelp forest that at one point in time Mathias himself viewed as a safe haven.

Coming back to himself Mathias felt oddly grateful that she had not used her claws. And so popping his left shoulder back into its socket he quickly went back to his fry. Coiling protectively over the top of the nest he invited them back into his hair before he started brokenly singing a lullaby. Eventually sleep found them, but it was not an easy night for anyone.

Chapter 24

The next morning, Mathias decided to forgo his usual seaweed foraging. There were still plenty planted in the nest. And after the previous night he needed to get away as soon as he could, and stay away as long as he could. So after digging out and tossing away a few chunks of rock and coral that no longer had sufficient plant matter attached to them to matter, he called for the youngsters and swam off as swiftly as he dared.

He was unable to tolerate staying still, so he took his fry to the shallowest water that he could still move easily in and called them into his shadow. Then he proceeded to show them how to blow trenches into the water. Whenever they uncovered anything he would quickly pin it down and show them how to dismantle it whether it be crab or clam. Because even if they could not do it themselves yet, the more they saw it done the sooner they would become able.

Time passed like this, with them easily moving with the tide, although Mathias was far more twitchy and distracted than he liked. So when Cora showed up he practically climbed up her body and into her arms, while the fry gathered around her feet. With a startled squawk she flared her wings for balance and confusedly asked, “Hello there, what’s wrong?” But when he simply pressed his face into her neck with a soft distressed whimper she quickly thought it over before darkly asking, “Did she show up last night or this morning?”

Mathias shuddered at the question before forcing himself to say, “Last night.”

“Oh you poor darling,” she murmured sadly then rubbing her cheek against his head she patted his shoulders and gently sang to him.

Slowly, Mathias calmed down and was able to properly sit so that Cora could carefully fold her wings. Within moments Mathias had placed a gentle kiss upon her shoulder. Interrupting her song, Cora glanced down at the babies as she asked uncertainly, “Are you sure?”

Nodding, Mathias looked up at her and said with a tone somewhere between reassurance and pleading, “Just kissing.”

Murmuring, “Alright,” she smiled gently and pressed her lips to his. Their lips moved sensually against each other as their hands slowly caressed over the other person’s neck and cheeks. Mathias tenderly traced his tongue over her lips, only to have her tongue caress his as his tongue retreated. After a while of this slow gentle make out, Mathias pulled back before he could lose control of his penile slit.

Then, breathing heavily he rested his forehead against hers as he softly said, “Thank you.”

With a satisfied smile, Cora huskily replied, “It was a pleasure.”

With a small sigh, Mathias settled back slightly as Cora straightened out. She gave him a long searching look, and seeing more than a glimmer of his usual cheerful personality she gave him a reassuring smile as she pulled out the meal that she had brought, which was consumed in a companionable silence. After, Cora curiously accompanied them for the day’s lessons. By the time they parted ways Mathias was in a far better frame of mind.

~~~~~

After settling everyone down in the nest, Mathias did not want to sleep, so he decided that he’d tell one of his favorite stories. “Do you guys want to hear The Dragon King’s Eternal Romance?” he asked them with only a small amount of false cheer. Ten pairs of sleepy eyes silently looked upon him, and with a self deprecating chuckle he began his tale, “Like with many stories we need to travel back to before the story truly begins. The Dragon King’s parents were Typhon and Echidna. Like most titans they could shapeshift, but all titans had a form that they were most comfortable in. For Typhon that form was ever changing but always monstrous. For Echidna it was as a fair maiden from the waist up and a lovely speckled snake from the waist down.”

“For titans more so than for gods, their forms will influence what their children are like. And so the pair bore many a monster, several of which still roam the world today. Or the underworld, as the case may be. And whenever her children seemed lonely Echidna would try to create something to keep them company. Sometimes it would be a people for them to rule, oftentimes it would be a pet for them to take care of, and a few times it was a partner for them to love.”

“So when Dragon, who was quite fond of shapeshifting and mingling amongst the mortals, complained to his mother that he could not find a companion that could hold his interest for more than a few years she decided to take a shot at creating the perfect mate for him. After quizzing him quite extensively on all of the qualities that had sparked his interest in different females, and what had caused it to fizzle out she eventually created six she-dragons. Each one was named for and took after one of the main six colors of the rainbow, with dainty silver accents and horns. Whereas Dragon himself when in his most natural form was a deep dark red with a white underbelly and majestic black horns and accents.”

“He spent a decade with the six getting to know them and slowly falling in love with a dragoness by the name of Indigo. However he did not want the other five to be lonely, so he asked his mother to make them matches as well. She made the five males based on metals and gems from the deepest parts of the earth. They were of platinum, gold, obsidian, glittering diamonds, and copper, with horns of deepest brown who’s majesty was somewhere between the females and their Dragon King.”

“For very nearly three thousand years the Dragon King was content as he ruled over his people with his wife by his side. Watching them prosper, grow and spread, finding their own niche in the world. But the Dragon King is a god, and his partner was not. Echidna had made them as potential mates for her son so she made them as long lived as possible, but there are limits to what even a titan can do, and all mortal lives must one day come to an end.”

“Dragon King could feel his wife’s time drawing to a close. So even though he knew it would do no good he wrapped himself protectively around her and narrated all of the happiest moments in their lives to her. From their first meeting, to the hatching of their first born and beyond. And as her life slipped away his voice grew silent only to shortly wrack the world with his cries of grief. For one hundred days and one hundred nights he cried as storms covered the world. When the storms calmed the world returned to normal, all save his lands which were covered by an unending fog that neither god nor titan could dispel. With the calming of the storms he grew silent and laid there neither eating nor sleeping as her body slowly turned to bones.”

“Then his mother crawled out of her cave and to her son’s side. She comforted him, and soothed him, and fed him treats from his childhood as she coaxed him to sleep. As he slept and dreamed of his wife the skies returned to their normal patterns.”

“When he eventually woke up his mother was no longer there, and the bones had turned to stone. But he had a thought, while yes she was dead and he could not see her in life again, he himself was a god. He could travel to the underworld and be with her there. So with one last look at the stone-like bones that were all that remained of his wife in the mortal realm he traveled in that way which is exclusive to those with a sufficient amount of divinity and found himself in Pluto’s realm.”

“Now Dragon King had been asleep for quite a long time and so was not familiar with Pluto nor the current culture of the underworld. But it did not take long for him to encounter the god in charge and tell Pluto his reason for being there. Luckily, Pluto has always had a soft spot for star crossed and devoted lovers. Unfortunately, as Pluto would explain the Blessed Isles would grow unstable if a god of the skies were to take up permanent residence within them.”

“But, as he would continue to explain, there are two types of people who he occasionally sent up to be reincarnated. Heroes who will be needed once again and lovers who have been kept apart. However, an infant’s head cannot hold memories of their past life, and everytime she died he’d need to keep her for a time equal to her life, and he could not guarantee that she’d wind up in the same part of the underworld. And if she ever wound up in Tartarus he could not promise to send her up again.”

“The Dragon King thought long and hard about it, but the only conclusion he could come to was that this was not a decision he could make entirely on his own. Upon asking to speak with his wife first he was led directly to her side. After a tearful reunion he explained the dilemma. It did not take her long to tell him that she would rather spend half of her existence with him, than to only get a few stolen moments.”

“He marked her soul so he would always know where she was and then after informing Pluto of their decision he retreated to await his love’s reincarnation. When she was dead, he would visit her as often as was feasible. And when he felt her being reborn he would guard her from a distance until she was of age. At which point he would make a suitable identity and court her all over again. No matter what form she was born to, he always enjoyed their new romance.”

Mathias fell silent and gently swept his fingers down Sixth’s back. He was the only one who was still sleepily blinking, the others having long since fallen asleep. Mathias himself had finally found some peace and so with a yawn he hummed to little Sixth as they joined the rest in slumber.

Chapter 25

Mathias and his fry rapidly fell into their new routine. Although occasionally the octopus dropped into their nest would not be dead and so Mathias would have to pry it out and send it on its way. But other than that his life followed a predictable pattern of enjoyable days and terrible nights. And before he knew it five months had passed and his fry were coming to grips with their adorable little hands much faster than he expected.

He was watching as Curiosity, who was just barely no longer the smallest, led a couple of others in figuring out how to pull apart a sand crab with their blunt little fingers when he noticed Cora approaching. He allowed a brief sad smile to form on his face once the round crustacean was pulled asunder. Their hands were indeed strong enough to hold tight while he swam properly. Then he whistled for his fry to follow as he narrowed the gap between them and Cora.

He had gotten better at maneuvering through the shallow waters, just as Cora had gotten better at walking through them. So he easily pulled up in front of her and gracefully sat up in shallow enough waters that almost the entirety of his chest was exposed. Nine of the fry swam cheerfully about her feet as Shadow breached eagerly in front of hir father, only to become easily overbalanced by hir large head and with a frustrated growl fall face first back into the water. Mathias chuckled as he touched hir back reassuringly, ze not only took after him in looks but was already trying to copy his every move.

Pretty soon Shadow switched tactics and slithered up Mathias’ chest to nestle hir head against his shoulder while Mathias supported hir bottom with an arm, so that ze could watch the excitement with the adults.

As soon as the hubbub had calmed down, Sleepless, the one that was always the first to wake and the last to sleep, started trying to climb his arm while holding a piece of sand crab in hir mouth. Once Mathias had hir settled against his other shoulder and as hir siblings poked their eyes and ears above the water, ze held out the bit of shell towards Cora and started babbling excitedly in hir babyish voice. Their vocal cords would not be properly formed until their metamorphosis completed in another month. But they were already pretty close, and Mathias and Cora both found the breathy babbling adorable.

“What’s that, sweety?” Cora asked while leaning close to examine the shell.

With a solemn smile, Mathias explained, “They managed to pull apart some sand crabs without any help today.”

Cora gently bumped her forehead into Sleepless as she excitedly exclaimed, “Oh good job baby!” Squealing happily, ze dropped the shell as ze grabbed Cora’s face. Cora chuckled, carefully extracted her face from hirs grasp as a chorus of demanding trills rang out.

Looking down, she saw eight little wobbly necked, scaled babies pushing their heads up to demand their own praise and affection. Indulgently, she spread her wings for balance as she leaned even further down to give each baby a gentle bump and a word of praise. After Cuddles had snuck around for a second round, she moved up to give Mathias and his little shadow some affection as well.

Finally having the masses appeased, she hesitantly asked Mathias, “Does that mean you’ll be leaving soon?”

Flashing Cora a reassuring smile, Mathias buried his melancholy to cheerfully respond, “We should leave to join the other mermen and fry in the morning.”

Cora thought it over for a moment and then perked up asking, “So that means I get you guys all to myself for one more afternoon.”

Laughing, Mathias nodded as she pulled the crock out of her bag. Once he had finished sharing this last hot meal with the fry, the two of them set to supervising the youngsters as they hunted. With many a happy break as the fry sought out one or the other for praise for their successes. Then with one last lingering kiss between the adults they parted ways, Cora to go tell her flock what was up and Mathias and his brood to go get some sleep before the morrows journey.

~~~~~

Early in the morning right after Mathias’ third nightmare of the night and before daylight had even started to filter into the water, he urged the fry to finish the seaweed before starting off. He took it slow at first, but then went faster and faster until he got close to his normal cruising speed. Once he was sure that they were all hanging on securely he sped up just a little bit more and headed for the pod’s current nesting grounds.

Contrary to what he had told Cora and Helen he was not sure that he’d be gone long. He was sure from the way Chloe kept trying to use contacting his family as a bribe that she did not want him nesting around the other mermen. But he wanted the harpies who had done so much for him to continue to have hope if he did not return again. And he was sure that if the worst happened to him that his fry would be free from their mother and so able to grow up safely.

So when he approached the furthest out of the nests he did not have his customary smile. That combined with his cautious movements, his abundant scars and his still malnourished frame meant that no one seemed to recognize him. He realized it as he listened to the mermen’s confused murmurs, as he flinched from any rapid movements. He could no longer feel safe outside the harpies' presence. Without that feeling of safety he could not hide his distress as well as he wanted to.

Just as his fry’s hungry whines forced him to stop and look for a place to allow them to hunt, he heard a familiar voice call out in wonder, “Matty?” Flinching, he turned to face his eldest brother. Romulus, otherwise known as Rommy was the only one of his parents first clutch to grow into a man, and the only one of Mathias’ older siblings to share his coloration.

With his six two year old merlings trailing behind, Romulus gestured for their other two brothers to stay back as he slowly approached the frightened looking merman. “Mathias?” he gently asked again as he got within touching distance.

Peeking out from behind their dad, Romulus’ merlings let out a hopeful chorus of, “Uncle?”

Mathias pulled his trembling lips into a brief smile as he whispered out, “Hey Rommy, hey niblings.”

Giggling, the six ducked back behind their dad, who reached a cautious hand to Mathias’ repeatedly scared cheek while worriedly asking, “What happened?” Only to halt his hand when Mathias flinched and a small form in his hair revealed itself by growling.

Reaching into his hair to give hir a reassuring pat, Mathias soothingly said, “It’s okay Sleepless.”

Romulus gaped in surprise for a moment before cautiously asking, “Who is the mother?” Last he knew the only mermaid that Mathias was even mildly interested in who had gone gravid this year had chosen someone else as a mate a week before Mathias went missing. And since no mermaids had gone missing at the same time as Mathias, he was worried that the elders would not be happy with Mathias bringing in an unknown mermaid’s offspring.

Defensively hunching his shoulders, Mathias spoke the name as if the sound leaving his mouth made him ill, “Chloe.”

Romulus’ face hardened. He didn’t know the girl well, hence why he didn’t recognize her scent on his brother. He had never seen her show any positive interest in Mathias. Coupled with Mathias’ current state and her consistent presence around others without ever mentioning her mate’s whereabouts meant that he was not happy with her. “I see,” he growled angrily. Then at the trio of defensive growls issuing from his brother’s hair and Mathias’ instantaneous defensive shift to take any blows on his left, scared up side, he took a deep calming breath then in a more equable tone he asked, “How many are there?”

But Mathias could not answer, he simply let out a soft whimper as he drew into himself, his eyes darting around looking for an escape while he breathed in rapid, open mouthed fear.

Sadly and cautiously, Romulus drew closer, then once Mathias accepted his gentle hand onto his trembling shoulder Romulus slowly pulled him into a hug, his arms slipping under the fry filled hair. He rocked, soothingly shushing into the younger merman’s ear while rhythmically patting his back.

As Mathias shifted to clinging to his brother his fry all started humming to him, and his niblings moved from behind their father’s back to rub comfortingly against him. Eventually Mathias relaxed and let out a hoarse, “Thank you.”

Releasing him, Romulus spoke gently, “No problem. Now how about I show you a good place for the fry to hunt?” At Mathias’ mute nod he turned and led him off, the both of them ignoring the shocked gossipy gazes they were receiving.

Within moments Mathias broke the silence to say, “Ten.” At his brother’s inquiring gaze, he forced himself to elaborate, “I have ten fry.”

Astonished, Romulus asked, “How many eggs did she lay?”

Giving him a confused look, Mathias answered, “Ten?”

“Ten?” Romulus repeated in amazement. At Mathias’ bemused nod he shook his head and asked, “Matty, how many eggs do you think Helena laid in our first clutch?”

Mathias experienced a brief moment of confusion before remembering that Rommy’s mate’s name was indeed that similar to Helen’s. Then he thought about it and remembered meeting those first seven niblings when he was nine he softly answered, “Seven.”

Sadly shaking his head, Romulus corrected him, “She laid twelve. I lost three of them in that first month…” Flashing a sadly proud smile, he continued, “It’s common for a first time dad to lose over half his clutch within the first year. And even beyond that, usually mermen lose a couple of fry with every clutch.” Carefully Romulus clasped his wide eyed brother’s shoulders as he said encouragingly, “Dad’s the only merman I know of who has never lost a fry or young merling, and he always attributed that to the, in his words, sensibly sized clutches that mom would lay. So you still having all ten after several months, you should be proud of yourself.” At Mathias’ shy smile he gently squeezed his shoulder before releasing him as they approached the one brother who had fry just a few weeks older than Mathias’.

Before he left him with Felix, Romulus cupped Mathias’ cheek and pressed their foreheads together as he softly said, “I’m sorry I used to threaten to squash you.”

Patting his cheek reassuringly, Mathias responded just as softly, “It’s okay, I never thought you would.”

“Still,” Romulus insisted, “I’m sorry, and I’m glad you're alive.”

“Thank you,” Mathias whispered roughly.

Then with one last affectionate bump, Romulus pulled away saying, “I’ll show you to my nest tonight, you can use it as long as you need to.” After his merlings had gotten a chance to hug their long missing uncle Romulus herded his six youngsters off to their preferred hunting spot.

As Mathias’ attention turned to him Felix held his hands up in a playfully defensive way as he teasingly said, “Every time I threatened to squash you, you deserved it, so not sorry!” At Mathias’ weak chuckle he lowered his hands with a smile and cheerfully said, “It is good to have you back though.”

“Yeah,” Mathias quietly agreed before calling his fry out to hunt.

Felix watched in amazement as they flowed out of his brother’s hair and started poking around near his own slightly chubbier four. Then he broke into Mathias’ wary vigilance to ask, “So where have you been?”

Mathias gave him a brief glance as he answered, “In the dead nesting ground, near a huge boulder that sticks out of the water for most of the day. It’s only fully submerged around midday.”

Then, before Felix could ask another question, Mathias surged forward and slammed a hand down, crushing the skull of a wobbegong that a couple of fry had gotten too close to. As Mathias ripped the small shark, that Felix hadn’t even seen until it was dead, apart for the fry Felix wryly said, “Okay, I take it back, I am very sorry I ever threatened to squash you.”

Mathias snorted suppressing a hysterical giggle before responding with, “I’m sorry for making you want to squash me.”

Nodding regally, Felix continued his playfully voiced interrogation, “Was there any good hunting left in there?”

Mathias devoured the parts of the shark that were too tough for his fry before answering, “No, but there was decent hunting for the fry in the sandy shallows.”

Felix frowned and nodded before settling into a cheerful discussion about the various methods for teaching a fry to hunt with his little brother.

~~~~~

Mathias tried not to, but around late morning he was starting to relax. Which, of course, is when Chloe showed up.

Mathias had become very attuned to Chloe’s scent, and so when the barest trace of her scent showed up on the currents Mathias called his fry over and coiled up protectively over the top of them. Leaving Felix and a couple of nearby mermen dumbfoundedly calling their fry to them as they frantically looked around for the source of danger. They just could not conceive of the fact that Chloe might be the danger that Mathias was reacting to.

She stopped and stared at Mathias, her pretty face marred by her obvious displeasure. “Mathias, take them back to your nest,” when her normally melodious voice snarled out the command the other three mermen jerked in startlement as their gazes snapped to her. With a fearful whimper, Mathias straightened out and chirruped the fry back into his hair before stiffly making his way to what he had hoped would be their former home. As he swam away Chloe turned a warning glare on the other three before swimming off in an entirely different direction.

Chapter 26

When Mathias finally collapsed back into his nest, he was a whimpering trembling mess. Eventually his fry’s nudging and humming got him singing to them, which slowly calmed him down. With a sigh, he set to cleaning the no longer needed rocks and coral chunks out of his nest before taking his fry to go fetch more seaweed.

As the group was planting their new batch of nighttime snacks a barely heard sound had Mathias coiling protectively atop the nest.

A delicate hand gently settled on his trembling tail as a familiar voice sorrowfully sighed out, “My little Silver.”

Peeking through a gap in his coils, he gazed into a sad face which was full of more emotion than he was used to seeing on her, and so he uncertainly spoke. “Mom?”

With a gentle pat, she encouragingly asked, “Can you come out and let me see you?”

Carefully unwinding himself, he moved into his mothers waiting arms. Wrapping her arms about him, she pressed their cheeks together as she softly whispered, “My sweet little merling.” Mathias let out a sad little whimper as he restrained himself from squeezing her to himself. After a few minutes she pulled back and started inspecting his wounds with every scar and every bruise both old and new just adding to her anger, but other than a slight tightening at the corner of her mouth there were no outward signs of this. When she got to the stitched up cuts along the back of his tail she asked while touching the stitching, “Who did this?”

“Um, I did,” Mathias answered while trying not to fidget, he felt like he should tell his mom more, but also like he shouldn’t. And it was very confusing. But he could see the curiosity in her eyes as she looked up at him and did not ask any additional questions, which was a bit unlike her. That was also when he realized that his mother wasn’t emoting more than normal, he had just gotten better at reading her.

Finishing her inspection, she straightened up in front of him and put her hands on his shoulders as she coaxingly said, “I need you to tell me what caused all these injuries.”

Mathias closed his eyes and shuddered as he forced himself to blurt out, “Chloe.”

She squeezed his shoulders reassuringly as she carefully asked, “Can you tell me why?”

Gulping, Mathias nodded and stammered out, “Sh-sh-she d-didn’t l-like the look on my f-f-face.”

Her lips tightened again as she took a moment to calm herself before asking, “Has she hurt the fry?”

Quickly, Mathias shook his head before saying, “Not… n-not physically at least.”

His mother looked over to where his fry were peeking warily over the edge of the nest. “I see,” she said with a trace of sadness, “You know your niblings all swarmed me the first time they met me, or any other new mer. But your fry… It’s almost like they’re afraid of strange adults.” At Mathias’ slow nod, she patted his shoulder and gestured to the large tuna that she had wedged under some coral branches and said, “You should show them that it’s safe to eat.”

He whistled them to follow as he darted to the tuna that was nearly as long as him, and definitely more massive. His mother settled serenely on the edge of his nest as she contentedly watched them tear into what she had provided. Once Mathias had filled his belly he came over and placed a hand on her shoulder and chirped at the fry. As they were cautiously swarming over their grandmother Mathias asked, “Would you mind keeping an eye on them for a little bit?”

Startled, she nevertheless nodded a subtle smile playing over her lips. “I’d love to watch them,” she assured him. Flashing her a brief smile, he whistled once more, patting her shoulder again before swimming off.

Without having to worry about or slow down for his fry, Mathias was able to gather seaweed much faster and in more abundance. He soon returned to see Glutton back at the tuna’s remains eating what ze could, while Cuddles was curled up in hir grandmother’s lap and the rest poked around amongst the rubble between their grandmother and the tuna.

As Mathias started arranging and anchoring the weeds in his nest, Shadow quickly joined him. His mother glanced at him briefly before turning her eyes back to the fry. “That’s a lot of seaweed. Does it make the nest comfier?”

Mathias shook his head and explained, “Not really, there’s something missing in the water and so the fry need more to eat at night than they might elsewhere.”

“Huh,” she said thoughtfully before popping out a complete non sequitur, “Your father has never lost his temper.” Mathias looked up curious and confused. Seeing her gazing out at the fry as she spoke, he returned to what he was doing while paying attention to her words, “When we were merlings I had quite a temper and so I got into a number of fights, and while he fought alongside of me he never lost his temper or started any fights.”

Mathias nodded, he’d heard a few tales about his mothers struggles to learn to control her temper as a subadult, so he wasn’t too surprised. She chuckled almost inaudibly before continuing, “When we went to complain to the pod leader and the elders, they said some upsetting things, and your father lost his temper.” Mathias opened his mouth, but then recognizing that she was in storyteller mode he snapped his mouth shut and moved to lounge on the edge of the nest, very soon the rest of the fry joined them, all except Glutton who was acting like he might decide to live in the tuna carcass.

Nodding to her audience, she continued to speak, “I never liked that girl, I could tell that no good would come of her being the next pod leader. Ever since the announcement I’ve been gathering people to split off and go form a new pod… I just thought we’d have more time. I didn’t think she could sink this low this fast.”

Sighing, she shifted streams again, “Your father lost his temper, broke the pod leader’s partner’s nose and got banished.”

At Mathias’ incredulous expression, her lips curled into a satisfied smile while she elaborated, “Breaking his nose was just his first swing. By the time they got some other men over who were willing to pull your father off of him the old cad was beaten into a bloody pulp.”

When she’d been silent long enough that Mathias was sure she was done talking, he hesitantly asked, “Is dad going to be okay?”

Nodding firmly, she assured him, “He’ll be fine, we already had a territory picked out for a new pod. He just left early with your younger siblings as well as some of his siblings and their partners and merlings. As soon as we can free you from that girl we’ll gather anyone who wants to split off and go join him.”

With a secretive smile, she told him in a whisper, “Your sisters are watching her for an opportunity to free you from her.”

He gave her a worried smile to which she gently ruffled the top of his head before nodding to Glutton and saying, “If you can keep up with that one’s appetite, ze should grow up to be quite a big mer.”

Mathias hummed and nodded as he also gazed at the busily gnawing fry. After they sat watching the fry for a little while she affectionately nudged Mathias before moving to depart, only to be pleasantly surprised when her youngest grandfry demanded their own bit’s of affection before she was allowed to leave.

~~~~~

Once again Mathias clung to the edge of the nest comforting and being comforted by his youngsters in the aftermath of his first nightmare of the night. Then out of the darkness another familiar voice softly spoke out, “I’m approaching your nest.” Mathias’ head whipped around to spot Tito admiring the tuna that their mother had left behind before he resumed his silent journey to the only nest in the area that was in good repair.

As Tito settled down beside him Mathias leaned his head against him and chirped before letting out a tired whisper, “Hello.”

“Hey there,” Tito whispered back in response, watching curiously as the small forms settled upon them both. Then, gently petting Mathias’ arm he hummed softly until his brother stopped trembling.

In a derisive whisper, Tito said, “Mom’s on probation for interfering with a mated couple.”

Mathias responded in bafflement, “But that’s not even a rule.”

Tito agreed saying, “No it’s not, I think the pod leader has lost it.” Sighing, he continued, “It means she’ll have to be more cautious coming to see you. So I don’t know how often she’ll be able to get away with it…” At his brother’s worried gaze, he smirked and shrugged, “I snuck out when that, that...”

“Bitch?” Mathias helpfully supplied.

Blinking, Tito tilted his head and asked, “What’s she got to do with female otters?”

Letting out a weak chuckle, Mathias explained, “Bitches are also mean, spiteful, ill tempered women.”

Grinning, Tito continued in a cheerful whisper, “I snuck out when that bitch and her toadies had all fallen asleep.” Gazing curiously down at Mathias he softly asked, “So what have you not felt comfortable enough to say out loud?”

Sighing, Mathias gazed off at nothing as he softly murmured, “A lot.” At Tito’s encouraging grunt and in hushed tones he explained about the harpies, and what he’d learned, and although he glossed over it quite a bit he even alluded enough to what he’d been through with Chloe for Tito to get a proper picture of that.

The fry had long since slipped back into the nest to snack on the seaweed and fall back asleep, and the brothers were silently gazing out into the dark waters lost in their own thoughts. When Mathias’ voice eased into the silence, “Do you remember Jenas?”

Tito nodded his head asking confusedly, “You mean that merman with the dead mate you helped a couple years ago?”

“Yeah, him,” Mathias said before sadly continuing, “If I ever snap and kill Chloe, I need you to take my fry to his pod and raise them there.” Mathias knew that if that happened then either Chloe’s family would insist on raising them which he did not want, or they and anyone who took them in would be persecuted for sheltering the offspring of Chloe’s killer. And it did not sound like his mother had gotten as many members for her new pod as she wanted. Whereas he didn’t face any punishment for helping Jenas until after Jenas and his merlings were gone which as Tito had pointed out at the time, meant that Jenas’ pod might actually be strong enough to stand up to theirs.

Tito thought it over a moment before hesitantly asking, “What if I have a mate who doesn’t want to move so far away?”

Mathias snorted, sitting up so he could gaze down at his brother who was trying his hardest to hold onto an affronted front. Playfully flicking him on the forehead, he explained the absurdity of that, “You are more interested in having an equal partner than you are in having offspring, and you are just as disinterested in men as I am. Not gonna happen.” What he didn’t mention was that Tito had convinced everyone outside of their quartet that he was asexual, so no mermaids were even trying to court him.

Rubbing his forehead, Tito allowed his lips to curl into an amused smile as he pointed out, “Hey I might fall in love with a harpy. You don’t know.”

“Okay then,” Mathias said with a chuckle as he leaned against Tito, “If that happens then just ask your partner and her flock to air lift you guys to a land locked lake.”

“Alright,” Tito agreed as their gazes once more turned to the fry.

After a few minutes, Mathias asked, “Do you think they’re too skinny?”

“Ummm, I don’t know,” Tito said with a shrug before offering, “I can try to sneak Rommy over within the next few days and see what he thinks though.” Mathias nodded and then they just sat there until Mathias started to drift off. At which point Tito shoved him off his shoulder and left. With a soft chuckle Mathias curled up with his youngsters and fell into a semi contented sleep.

Chapter 27

The tuna’s remains allowed Mathias and his fry to eat their fill before they lazily made their way to the sandy shallows. The fry’s instincts no longer drove them to stick quite so close to their father and since they had full bellies Mathias was allowing them to explore as they traveled.

Seeing as they really were outgrowing the prey that they could find in the sandy shallows, Mathias was trying to think of where else he could take them that was close enough to their nest to be worth it.

Then he heard a disturbance in the coral. He turned his head, holding still as he listened closely, the currents were wrong to bring a scent to him, but he was sure that he heard Chloe’s growling. As he whistled the fry to himself he briefly thought of fleeing towards the beach, but he could not safely flip out of the water with fry clinging to him and the only harpy he’d ever seen out near the beach in the morning had been Clara, and it would be another year and a half before she could potentially be there.

So instead, once they were all within his shadow, he coiled protectively over them as he anxiously awaited a thing that he perhaps should have seen coming.

He did not have long to wait until Chloe was upon him. There were no words spoken, no gentleness even feigned, and no hesitation before she was tearing into his tail with the only restraint shown being that of the quietness of her growls.

Trembling and whimpering, Mathias endured the pain as he nudged the fearfully trilling fry into various hiding spots in the broken coral beneath him. It was not long after he finished that task that Chloe tired of what she was doing and snarled out an order, “Come out and face me!” Jerkily he uncoiled and rose upright, cringing in on himself as he tried and failed to close his eyes. Making fists she pounded on his chest, repeatedly forcing the water out of his lungs as she angrily, demandingly questioned, “Why did you have to move without permission?”

Even if he had wanted to answer, she gave him no opportunity to. With a frustrated growl she started batting him around with her tail. Every time Mathias found himself falling into a new position he would automatically turn to face Chloe once more.

After what felt like hours but was probably a much shorter time, Chloe tired of this as well. Rushing towards him, she wrapped her hands around his neck, and with her claws slowly digging in front and back she squeezed while shaking him.

Fearing for his life more than at any other time, Mathias raised a shaky hand to swing at her. Easily spotting it coming, Chloe tossed him aside as she dodged out of the way. Then, as Mathias twitched and pantingly faced her once more she harrumphed at him and swam away.

Once she was far enough away, Mathias drifted down into the broken coral. Except for the sound of the still fearfully trilling fry all was silent for a few minutes. And then Mathias closed his eyes and started crying as his panic drained away. He didn’t open his eyes again until he felt his small offspring’s trembling bodies nestling into his hair.

Taking a couple minutes more to pull himself together, he let out a questioning whistle and then listened for them to sound off with their own little whistles and chirps. Once he was sure that they were all in his hair, he brokenly crawled and wiggled towards the beach.

It took longer than even their earlier leisurely pace would have gotten them there, but they arrived before the tide had fully come in. Mathias however did not let them off to explore or hunt, instead he painfully crawled as far towards the beach as he could and still be fully submerged before he dug into the sand.

He did not use his breath to create gentle trenches. Instead he used his painful shaky arms and hands to dig into the dirt. Soon without his asking, and without knowing why he was doing it, starting with Curious and Shadow the fry slowly emerged from his hair and started pushing the mud out of the hole. Occasionally they would stop and eat as they unearthed something edible that they could handle, but Mathias did not stop until he decided that the pit was deep enough. And then he coiled his broken, erratically twitching tail over the top of them, safely sealing his fry into the pit.

~~~~~

As the tide receded the hole held onto the water as Mathias hopped it would. Worried though that he would use up too much of the oxygen in the small pool Mathias painfully shifted, giving himself a small ledge to rest his head on and to watch his youngsters uneasily moving about and occasionally digging into the walls that trapped them. Which is why hours later he was able to hear a pair of young voices approaching.

“Iris,” the first voice spoke out, “what is that?”

“I don’t know,” Iris said as she slowly moved closer. Soon Mathias could feel her breathing on his scales as she leaned in to examine him.

The name was familiar but Mathias was so worn out from his injuries, his later exertions and keeping himself awake to keep an eye on his babies, that he could not muster the energy to speak up or twitch anymore.

The first voice asked worriedly, “Do you think it might be a lamia?”

Snorting in disbelief, Iris said with patience tempered with a bit of exasperation, “Ione, don’t be silly. Lamias don’t come in this color, and even if it was Helen says that lamia’s are a very shy, gentle people.”

Mathias felt another breath gust over his tail as Ione leaned in to examine him as well. Finally she curiously spoke up, “It smells like the ocean, do you think it could be that merman?”

Mathias could practically hear the eye roll behind Iris’ sigh at the first part of the girl’s statement. But then Iris stilled and considered it, soon she worriedly said, “He probably is actually…” Making a snap decision, she told her sister, “Leave your bucket and go fetch Helen. I’ll stay here and keep an eye out.”

“Ah, ack! Okay!” Ione fired out in a flutter as she dropped her bucket which splashed all over Mathias and took off in a loud clap of wings.

“I bet the water feels good,” Iris muttered before nervously saying, “Ione is really fast so it shouldn’t take long.” Then she transferred the solids in her bucket to her sister’s and dumped out the rest of the water onto Mathias before making multiple trips to and from the water’s edge so she could try to keep him wet.

Mathias appreciated her efforts and several times he tried to muster the strength to tell her so, but all he could do was enjoy the soothing wetness upon his scales and wounds.

So, it was not much longer or at least it did not feel like it was much longer to the pair until the sound of multiple wings filled the air. Listening eagerly, Mathias managed to force an anxious whimper out of his parched throat. Iris danced fretfully beside him as the other large avians landed.

Soon a small hand landed on his tail as Helen said with a certain gruff sorrow, “You look rough kiddo.” Upon hearing her voice Mathias let out a relieved sigh and passed out, his coils visibly loosened as he lost consciousness.

~~~~~

Hours later Mathias was awoken by someone repeatedly calling his name while insistently nudging a spoon against his lips. With a strangled groan of effort Mathias tried to sit up from the pile of sand he was reclining on, only to have the spoon popped into his mouth as a pair of small hands firmly pushed his weak self down. “Hold still Mathias, and let me take care of you,” Helen gently chided. Then once he had swallowed what was on the spoon, she let go of his shoulders and took the spoon back.

Mathias automatically ate the thick lumpless stew as he took stock of his situation. There was a wet cloth folded over his eyes, blood was seeping into his mouth from where his lip had split, his left arm was completely wrapped up and immobilized as well as being strapped across his chest which was also firmly wrapped up, there were firm bandages around his right forearm and wrist limiting his mobility there, and everything hurt to varying degrees unless it was completely numb.

Turning his head away from the path of the spoon, Mathias asked in a weak cracked voice, “What?” he had a longer question in mind, but it hurt so much to say the one word that he stopped there.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” an unfamiliar husky voice muttered before Helen could speak back up.

Mathias could practically feel Helen glaring at the other as she scolded her, “Hush Alula, and let him regain at least a bit of strength.” At the new voice Mathias started blinking rapidly to help the cloth slowly dripping over his eyes clear away the sleep gunk faster.

Then, using her blunted talon tips to turn his chin back to her, Helen continued to feed him as she answered his question, “Iris and Ione, the two girls who brought you that bucket of bladderwrack months ago, found you on the beach. Ione, who is the faster flyer of the two came to fetch us while Iris stayed with you to try and keep you comfortable. I brought along Cora and my apprentice Alula.”

Helen took a deep breath before continuing, “You seemed to relax when I first spoke to you, which I’m guessing is when you finally passed out?” At his brief noise of agreement Helen grunted and continued, “That made it easier to uncoil you. Us three adults carefully moved you while the children took turns keeping watch on your fry and digging a trench from the water to the tide pool you’d made for them. They also fed them the seaweed, and shellfish they’d managed to gather.”

At his sigh of relief, Helen let out a faint chuckle before continuing, “Once we had a ramp of sand built up and you positioned on it. Cora took my bag of apple drops and went to help with the fry. I think she used it to lure them into the surf before dumping the whole bag, minus a handful for the girls into the water.” Mathias smiled painfully at the description.

“Alula and I worked together to get you stitched up and your bones properly set. Aside from maybe some of your ribs and a handful of your vertebrae you didn’t have a single joint that was properly aligned. Luckily the bones in your right arm aren’t actually fractured. Afterwards I sent Alula back to get you some candy and invalid stew while I made sure that your eyes and insides were wet enough.”

“Thank you,” Mathias hoarsely said.

“You’re welcome,” Helen said gravely before popping a candy into his mouth. It was almost familiar but had a bit of a bitter taste that Mathias didn’t like. At his slight frown of displeasure Helen said reassuringly, “Raspberry and horsetail for bones, and raspberry and dandelion for blood. There are some of each in the bag. You can chew them if you want.”

He pulled the cloth off his face with his wrapped right hand in time to see Helen handing the bag of candy off to the other harpy and saying, “Make sure he eats all of them.” Spotting Mathias’ eyes once more Helen gave him a soft smile and said, “I’m going to go check and make sure your babies aren’t hiding any injuries from Cora.”

Mathias nodded painfully as she moved off, then turned his gaze to look more fully at Alula, his mouth opening automatically as she held another pinkish candy out to him.

The only word he could think of to describe her features was handsome. In comparison the other harpies he’d met were much more on the cute side. Between Alula’s strong features and mottled brown feathers he was finally able to figure out what bird harpies most reminded him of, and he couldn’t figure out how he hadn’t realized that they looked like eagles before. Other than that, she looked to be about the same age as Cora and Clara, but if she was related to them it wasn’t obvious.

Shoving another candy into his mouth, Alula dryly asked as he finally started chewing on them, “See something you like?”

At his agreeable, “Mmhmm,” she simply chuckled and shook her head as she muttered about lusty mermen making harpies seem tame.

He smiled only briefly before closing his eyes in pain. She shoved another candy into his mouth and sympathetically said, “The horsetail should also help a little with the pain.” Then she fell silent as she continued to feed him.

Soon Helen returned with Cora and without interrupting let Mathias know, “No one else is hurt, but they do all seem rather upset.” At his sad whimper, she smiled reassuringly and continued, “The sun will be setting soon so we need to send the girls home. And we need to get you into the water.” He glanced to the water where the gray preteen harpies were standing in the surf with anxious fry circling around their feet as he listened to Helen, “I need you to put your good arm around my shoulder, and Alula will grab your hip while Cora takes care of your other side.”

“Okay,” Mathias softly agreed. Then after another small handful of candy was shoved into his mouth, and the bag put away, the harpies moved into position to lift, turn with him, and half carry, half drag him into the water. The process was extremely painful and awkward, but he simply clung to Helen and groaned as he did his best to bear with it.

Once they had him settled into the water with his offspring swarming anxiously over him, Helen allowed the two girls to shyly peek at him before sending them back home. Soon after three pairs of worried eyes turned to him and waited barely a minute before Cora grumpily spoke up, “Okay spill, what happened?”

Mathias swallowed reflexively a few times before taking a deep shuddering breath and, in a still rough voice, haltingly explained everything that had happened since he last saw Cora.

Sighing, Cora caressed the top of his head and gently yet firmly said as Helen popped a mint lemon candy into his mouth, “We’re not leaving you alone tonight. Alula and I are going to go build a bonfire while Helen takes the first turn standing with you. Try to get comfortable and we’ll keep you guys safe.”

At Mathias’ small grateful nod the younger harpies smiled and left to start their bonfire while Helen followed Mathias as he one arm dragged himself just a little further into the water. Mathias curled up with his fry snuggled up against him, and he was finally able to drop into a peaceful sleep with Helen’s comforting presence at hand.

Chapter 28

A few times that night Mathias shifted to move deeper into the water as the tide receded, but when Helen traded places with Cora, he barely even stirred. So very late that night after the tide had started to turn when Cora traded places with someone else, she didn’t think it would disturb him.

However as Cora’s presence left his side, he awoke with a start and a fearful whimper. “It’s me Mathias,” Tito whispered softly to him from a short distance away and then just waited for him to calm down.

Mathias took a few minutes to calm his panicked trembling before letting out a sad little, “I’m sorry.”

Finally, Tito moved closer and with an affectionate nudge he grumbled to his brother, “You have nothing to be sorry for.” Then he roughly tore an arm length moray that he had brought with him into thirds and gave either end to his stirring niblings before giving the middle bit to Mathias and urging him to eat.

Mathias wearily ate the fish while Tito alertly lounged beside him. Once he was finally able to painfully swallow he hoarsely asked, “How’d you manage to find me?”

Tito snorted as he stifled an incredulous laugh, “I followed the scent of your blood. It really wasn’t hard once I got sufficiently past your nest. That creature stole the rest of your tuna by the way.” Mathias nodded gravely as he had expected the theft to some extent.

Tito touched his head comfortingly as he praised Mathias, “You showed her that she can push you too far and you will fight back. So if I know her as well as I think I do, then she’ll leave you alone for two or three weeks. Maybe more if she’s angrier than I think.”

Mathias flashed Tito a brief pained smile before drowsily laying his head down. Gently petting his brother’s temple Tito said with only a hint of sternness, “I gave, Cora I think her name was, that little nugget of information you’d been holding back.” At Mathias’ curious yet guilty gaze, he went on, “It wasn’t much, just the fact that merfolk eat more when they’re injured and they heal faster if they’re fed in excess.”

Sheepishly, Mathias mumbled, “I didn’t want to be more of a bother.”

Sighing, Tito screwed his face up as he obviously thought up and discarded several arguments before gently supplying the ones that his brother would react best to, “But your fry need their father to be healthy, and seeing you hurt makes the harpies sad. Also taking care of you seems to make them happy. You do want to take good care of your fry and make your harpies happy, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Mathias whispered guiltily.

Sweeping his fingers through his brother’s hair one last time, Tito gently said, “Go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll stay here as long as I can get away with before pushing you into shallower waters and going to fetch one of the harpies.”

Mathias yawned and pushed his head into his brother’s hand as he let out a soft, “Okay,” before settling down and allowing himself to slip back into a worn out slumber.

~~~~~

Mathias barely noticed when his brother moved him, and he didn’t really hear the reassuring words that were murmured to him before Tito left his side to crawl onto land. But once his brother had fully left his side he woke up with a fearful whimper.

Tito cast a worried look over his shoulder at the sound, but he was already pushing how long he could be away and unnoticed so he continued on his way to fetch someone to watch over his brother.

Soon enough, Tito did return with a harpy trailing behind him. He took a moment to silently rest his cheek where Mathias was the least hurt, the top of his head. Then once he had calmed again Tito softly said, “Alula is here, and it’ll be another hour til sunrise, you should try to get a little more sleep.”

With a sigh, Mathias let out a sad little, “Thank you.” Then he watched as the comforting presence of his brother swam away before shifting himself a little so he could rest his head against Alula’s foot. He could practically feel her curious gaze through the air and water as he turned his own drowsy gaze to watch his fry digging through the sand within his reach. And in a short while, he did indeed fall back asleep.

~~~~~

The fresh scent of blood woke Mathias up. Before his eyes even opened he abruptly and protectively moved over his fry. Looming over them, with his one usable hand planted in the ground he growled and looked around, ignoring the way his body ached and spasmed at his abrupt movements while he searched for the source so he could assess whether it was a potential danger, food source or both.

But all he could see were a pair of harpy legs that were very nearly on tippy toes from how far the tide had come in. His growl drifted off in confusion and hearing happy little chirps from his fry, he very carefully looked underneath himself.

Bemusedly, he watched them swarming over a pile of what smelled like cut up mutton. Letting out a self deprecating chuckle, he cautiously slumped back onto his side. Then letting out a soft, “Fuck,” he concentrated on his breathing until the spasming stopped and the pain receded back to a bearable level.

As the fry finished the pile, and before the harpies could drop more into the water, Mathias rolled over and called his young to follow as he moved to waters shallow enough for the harpies to stand more comfortably.

Settling back down, he took a moment to rest as they dropped more meat upon them. Seeing as they dropped it much closer to his head this time, and the fry with the exception of Glutton were far less ravenous Mathias gingerly snagged himself a few harpy fist sized chunks to eat.

Carefully, he sat up in the waters so that his head and shoulders were exposed. Spotting Cora and Helen, he gave them a small pained smile. They smiled back and Cora worriedly said, “Sorry for startling you.”

Mathias started to shake his head but winched instead before softly reassuring her, “It couldn’t be helped.”

Before they could say anymore, Helen leaned in and carefully examined his face. Mathias stared back curiously until Cora nudged Helen, getting her to pull back so Cora could feed Mathias a larger chunk of meat than they’d been dropping for the babies.

Helen muttered almost to herself yet still audibly to the other two, “He looks to be a healthy weight for a human or centaur, but I’m guessing from his brother’s rounder cheeks and his advice on feeding an injured merman that merfolk need a thicker layer of fat to be healthy.”

Stifling a whimper of pain as he swallowed Mathias let out a soft sheepishly contrite, “Sorry.”

As Cora pushed more food onto Mathias, Helen sighed and gently scolded, “We really enjoy spending time with you, taking care of you, and helping with your fry. But just about everything we know about your species we learned from you. So if there is anything that we’re not doing that would help, or something you know we’re doing wrong you need to tell us.”

At Mathias’ slow guilty nod she gave him a gentle smile and asked for his hand. Unwrapping his hand she carefully examined how the bones were sitting together and his pain level. With a soft satisfied hum she rewrapped his hand and arm so that it was more supportive than restrictive.

Soothingly, Helen informed him, “It should be okay to fully use your right hand now but we need to leave your left arm alone for at least a week. Then I’ll check how the breaks are healing.” Frowning, she thought something over for a few moments before direly warning him, “If it gets jostled badly I might need to re-break and reset it, so please try to keep that from happening.”

Going pale, he gulped his food down a little too fast causing him to cough before he let out a hoarse, “Okay.”

Furrowing her brows, Helen held up a hand to stop Cora from pulling the last of the meat from her bag. Shifting closer to Mathias, Helen cooed out soothingly, “Sweetheart, can you slowly open your mouth as far as you're comfortable with?”

Puzzled, Mathias did as she asked, only to wince and stop when he got it about half open.

As Helen gently nudged his face so that the sun was shining into his mouth, Cora worriedly mumbled, “I’ve seen him open his mouth much wider than that.”

Helen nodded in silent agreement as she carefully peered into his maw. After a few minutes of study she gently said, “You can close your mouth now.” As he did so, she continued speaking while using her own hands to demonstrate, “I’m going to ask you some questions and I want you to give me a thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no, and a hand wiggle for maybe or a little. Okay?”

At his tentative thumbs up she gave him a reassuring smile and asked, “Does it hurt to chew?” At his thumbs down she continued, “How about swallowing?” He started to give her a thumbs up before switching to an uncertain hand wiggle. “It doesn’t hurt a lot to swallow but it does hurt a little?” she guessed which got her a more immediate thumbs up.

Nodding, she carefully warned him, “I’m going to touch your neck now.” Reflexively gulping he tried not to flinch as she placed her hand at the top of his neck. “Okay now,” she said soothingly, “I want you to swallow.” Feeling his neck move beneath her hand, she made a thoughtful sound before moving down and asking him to swallow again, and then again until she’d felt the entire length of his neck while he was swallowing.

Moving her hand back up to his adams apple, she soothingly said, “Okay sweetheart I’ll take my hand off you right after this, I need you to hum a few bars for me.” A look of confusion passed over his face, but he didn’t think it was the proper time to ask for clarification on what a few bars meant so instead he hummed a familiar tune until she removed her hand.

Tucking her hands away, she continued her verbal investigation, “Did humming hurt?” With his thumbs down she continued, “Does speaking in the air hurt?” He gave her a thumbs up and she asked, “Where exactly does it hurt?” He traced a finger from his adams apple up to the top of his neck. Frowning, she nodded as if it confirmed something, then she gently asked, “Does it hurt to speak in the water?” With his hand wiggle she asked, “Does being quieter make it hurt less?” At his enthusiastic thumbs up she chuckled and asked one more question, “Do the lemon mint candies help with the pain?” At his hand wiggle she nevertheless dug out a lemon mint candy from her bag and offered it to him with an amused smile.

With an odd sort of eager politeness, he took it from her hand and popped it into his mouth, content to suck on the cool, yet tart sweet treat before having more meat. Cora laughed as he gave her a smug smirk before she playfully complained to Helen, “You’ll ruin his appetite.”

Snorting, Helen responded wryly, “I’ll do no such thing. If anything, the lemon will help with his appetite.”

Turning serious once more, Helen softly warned Mathias, “You need to treat yourself as gently as you can during the early phase of your injuries. Because while it’s true that what doesn’t kill you can make you stronger, if you push yourself too hard too fast it’s more likely to cripple you instead. So as with everything else that’s badly injured, no speaking unless absolutely necessary.” Worriedly, Mathias gave her a slight nod, to which she leaned forward and patted his shoulder as she reassured him, “We’ll do our best to keep everything working.”

Helen moved out of the way so that Cora could hand over that last large chunk of meat. As he received it in his one mobile hand the pair exchanged worried looks before Cora turned back to Mathias and said, “We need to go back to our flock for a bit. Someone should return soon though… Will you be okay till then?” Mathias cradled the meat against his chest and tried to give them a reassuring smile, but with his busted lip and his face being as mottled in bruises as the rest of him, it wasn’t very reassuring.

As Cora let out a worried sigh, Helen muttered, “I’ll get some of the girls to keep an eye on him.”

“That’ll have to do,” Cora agreed fretfully.

As they passed him on their way towards shore, Cora gave him a kiss on the top of his head, and Helen paused long enough to ruffle his hair affectionately. Sinking into the water, he noticed that Cora had managed to sneak the fry one last pile of meat. So he had enough time to finish his candy before shoving the last chunk that she had handed to him into his mouth. Then he carefully moved the fry to a better hunting spot, while moving so slowly himself that his youngsters often darted off ahead of him.

Chapter 29

Alula was feeding him his sixth pot of invalid stew of the day, and Mathias was trying to figure out how to articulate his needs, or rather the needs of his fry in as few words as possible.

Cora, Alula and Cora and Clara’s third clutchmate, a harpy by the name of Callie had been taking turns feeding him and keeping him company as he tended to the fry. Which he appreciated, because his head had been stuck in a bit of a murky distracted miasma. He hadn’t even realized that he’d met a new person until Cora came by later and asked how he’d liked meeting her other sister. Which he felt bad about, but there also wasn’t anything he could do about it after the fact.

But as much as he craved company, and needed to refrain from moving when possible, his fry needed to sleep in their nest at night. They had not slept as well as they should have the night before, and neither had he what with having to move with the tide. And they had been far more ravenous that morning than was normal. He had been thinking about this problem off and on all day, and he thought he might have a solution.

So as Alula was putting the crock away he reached out and touched her cheek so she would look at him. Then he said so softly that he worried she might not hear properly, “Fry, need nest.”

She furrowed her brow in thought before asking uncertainly, “Your fry need to sleep in their nest?” He gave her a brief smile and a thumbs up in response.

“Hmm,” she mumbled thoughtfully, “It’s a couple hours till sundown, but I think we can find some way to make it happen.”

He waved a negatory hand at her, and when she looked at him with an upraised curious eyebrow he whispered out a name, “Tito.”

Perking up, she said excitedly, “Yeah I can see how that would be less stressful for everyone. So you just need some company until your brother shows up?” With a shy smile, he shrugged slightly with his right shoulder only, causing Alula to sternly tell him, “You’ll have company until your brother shows up.” Smiling wanly, he gave her a brief nod before dropping back into the water with his fry.

~~~~~

Mathias had spent the whole day staying awake to keep an eye on his fry, so it didn’t surprise even himself when he passed out before he got a chance to try and talk with Cora again. It upset him yes but it didn’t surprise him considering that he always seemed to need more sleep the more he was injured.

Perhaps he should have been napping throughout the day though, because he barely stirred when whichever harpy it was who was standing guard over him would nudge him into slightly deeper waters as the tide went out. He didn’t fully rouse until Tito showed up and carefully shook him awake while calling his name in a hushed voice.

Tito remained silent while he split a large moray between Mathias and his fry. Then as Mathias carefully swallowed he worriedly asked, “Are you sure you want to go back? There won’t be anyone there with you most of the time.” At his brother’s careful nod Tito sighed and grumbled as he slid into position for Mathias to climb on his back, “I suppose the harpies can continue to feed you like they did when the eggs were hatching, and it’ll be an easier spot to find for the rowdy duo.”

Mathias called the fry into his hair before carefully pulling himself onto his own clutchmate’s back. Wrapping his one good arm securely around Tito’s chest he asked in an amused croak, “What?”

Tito frowned briefly at the sound of Mathias’ voice before giving out an amused chuckle and responded, “Darius and Linus have been wanting to sneak over and see you too. And well, a huge boulder makes for a better landmark than sand, sand and more sand.” Mathias hummed his agreement as Tito started to move.

Tito carefully moved in such a way as to not unduly jostle the larger merman who was hitching a ride on his back. With how gently the land sloped it was a bit longer than either of them liked until Tito could rise up high enough that the end of Mathias’ tail would no longer drag along. But Tito would scold Mathias every time he even thought of taking on some of the burden of moving.

Eventually they did make it back to the nest. Their pace had been similar to Mathias’ leisurely swims, so it took longer than it could have but there was still plenty of night left. Once they reached the end of their journey, Tito hid a worried frown behind a cheerful facade as he helped Mathias and the fry settle into the nest. Then he perched upon the edge of the nest and soothingly pet his brother’s head as he hummed one of their childhood lullabies.

By the time Mathias awoke once more the sun had long risen and Tito was long gone.

Upon waking Mathias was rather disoriented. He noticed that his youngsters were looking fixedly up but he ignored it at first to pull himself up to the nest ridge and looked around in wary confusion before following their gaze. The seaweed in the nest was nearly gone, and there were a handful of crabs skittering around nearby, but the fry had stayed put instead of chasing after them. Spotting nothing amiss, and nothing dangerous he let out a small sigh and turned his gaze upwards.

Spotting the trio of weighted squirrels slowly sinking towards them a small smile graced his face as he let out a soft trill to let his fry know that it was safe to explore. As the fry swarmed over the sinking meat he knew that he’d get little more than scraps of bone, and he was okay with that. As worried as everyone else seemed to be about him getting enough to eat to become healthy he was at least as worried about his fry getting enough to eat to stay healthy.

Mathias scanned the rubble near his nest thoroughly so that by the time the fry had moved onto hunting crab he was reasonably sure that they’d be safe. As he chewed on the chunks of bone that they had failed to eat he moved off to more carefully survey their surroundings. Mathias moved more easily and less painfully than he had the night before even, but his arm and ribs were not healing as quickly as his spine had. And he was still covered in a multitude of aching bruises.

When he finally decided that it was safe enough he perched on a small boulder within easy tail reach of all his fry and settled in to watch them. With nothing else to distract his thoughts he purposefully turned them to his own father, the words that his mother said mere days ago still ringing through his head. “Your father lost his temper for the first time.” And thinking back on it, it was true. He’d witnessed plenty of events that should have angered the friendly merman, but instead all that he had witnessed from him had been a sort of sad resignation.

Sensing a disturbance in the water behind him he let out a soft warning growl. Then as his fry fled into his hair he turned so he could slap it with his tail. Only when it was over did he realize that it was a yellow damselfish that was maybe a fourth the size of his smallest offspring. Sighing he scooped up the dead fish with his tail fin and brought it over for a small snack.

Humming reassuringly, he shooed the youngsters back to their hunt as his thoughts turned inwards once more. Thinking further on what he’d recently learned of his father Mathias found himself wondering, ‘Was dad as hypervigilant as I am? Is that why he never even lost any fry… Did he not think he could rely upon the other mermen?” He could not help but let out a sad little whisper, “He was always surrounded, but was he lonely?” Mathias did not fully understand it, but he felt that he might possibly be closer to understanding than any of his siblings. Rubbing his neck where the burn even from that brief vocalization lingered Mathias continued his silent musings, ‘What happened in dad and mom’s youth to change them both so drastically?’ He had heard many tales from their merling days, and with his new perspective he could tell something big must’ve happened to cause such a big turn around for the both of them. The stories of his mother were more obviously different from her present, but even his father was more overtly carefree in his youthful escapades.

Mathias was knocked out of his spiraling thoughts by Glutton bumping into his right shoulder before nuzzling into his neck as ze whined hungrily. Reaching up to pet along his growing fry’s back, he gazed out over the other nine worriedly. Cuddles soon curled up in his lap, while Sleepless, Shadow and Quick were sucking on some coral chunks, and Curiosity and Follows were digging through what they could find of the sand, the other three however were gnawing on crab shells.

Frowning, he contemplated which direction to go. The beach was closer to his nest than most mermen were comfortable with. Afterall if he hadn’t shored it up properly about once a month it would be partially exposed to the air for about an hour deep in the night. Even so he was still not in good enough shape to make it all the way to the beach without risking reinjury. But there were some thick clumps of seaweed not too far away. And there would be hunting around the weeds, not to mention he needed to try and replenish the garden within his nest before nightfall.

Just as he was deciding which clump would be the best to go to, he heard something big moving over the dead coral. Ignoring his pain he whipped his head towards the sound, it was coming from the direction of the kelp forest. Mathias shushed Glutton as he carefully listened, it only took a moment to realize that it was two individuals coming their way.

Mathias could not think of any animals of that size who would travel in pairs and he sincerely doubted that Chloe would bring along any witnesses to her abuse, but he couldn’t rule it out. And it was always possible that it was some of her sycophants who thought that they would be helpful and get rid of a problem of her’s.

Being in no shape for any other response Mathias ignored the pain it caused as he loudly growled out a warning, causing his fry to quickly flee into his splayed out hair. He brought his tail up into a defensive arc and fanned the fin out threateningly as he awaited the intruders’ approach.

Chapter 30

Mathias then heard a very familiar voice call out. He could not understand it over his own growls but it was one that had never brought him harm. He went silent in confusion and held still as he listened closely once more.

“It’s us Mathias,” Darius’ voice rang through the waters once more, as if he’d been waiting for his brother’s growls to cease to repeat himself.

Mathias let out a soft whimper of relief as he relaxed. But it nearly immediately turned into a long drawn out whine as his body instantly seized up and spasmed once more. By the time his brothers had drawn near enough for him to be able to scent them the spasms had passed and he was catching his breath. And by the time they had drawn into sight the only evidence left of his painful spasms was the ashen pallor of his skin.

Mathias smiled weakly at the sight, Darius’ arms were full of a wider variety of seaweed than Mathias had seen in quite a while and Linus was cradling a sunfish about the length of his chest. Darius’ return smile was his usual bright and cheerful thing, whereas the smile that Linus turned onto his brother was a bit more cautious as his gaze drifted searchingly over the battered merman’s face.

Darius like always was the first to break the silence as he started happily babbling, “Tito said that you’d like some seaweed, he also said it’d be easier to carry if I left it attached to detritus that it came with. And wouldn’t you know but like always he’s right!” Swimming right up to his brother, he didn’t even seem to notice Mathias’ flinch at the rapid movements as he proudly presented his overflowing armful of green to purple weeds.

Mathias let out a weak chuckle and gestured towards his nest with his good arm as he asked in a hoarse whisper, “Can you plant those in my nest for me?”

Darius gazed over at the decimated garden within the nest. Briefly he got a bit wide eyed before he cheerfully responded while moving over, “Sure thing! I’ll just clean out some of this detritus while I’m at it too. Detritus is such a fun word, did you know that it means strewn rubble?”

Smiling wryly, Mathias wondered if Darius had been taking lessons on acting dumber than he actually was, as these were thoughts that he’d originally shared with his brothers when they were all twelve. He was quickly pulled out of his musings however by Linus clearing his throat as he slowly moved over and with careful deliberate motions started tearing apart the fish he brought.

Mathias placed a hand on Linus’ elbow as he called the fry out to meet their uncle. Linus gazed curiously at the fry as he shoved a large chunk into Mathias’ mouth. Then with Darius nattering over the top of them in the background Linus spoke in hurried hushed tones, “We’re not supposed to bring you prey. I think we’ll get away with openly bringing you seaweed, but bringing you prey is interfering with the sacred duty of a merman’s mate.” Linus’ face twisted as he fought the urge to growl out the last part of the sentence.

At Mathias’ sad expression and understanding nod, Linus let out a soft sigh and fell silent as he made sure that the injured merman got a fair share of the fish he’d brought. Once Mathias had swallowed the last bite Linus softly asked, “How’re you hanging on?”

Mathias frowned as he thought about how to answer, finally with a half shrug he softly did so, “Everything hurts, but it’s better than yesterday.”

Linus choked on a skeptical scoff but before he could actually say anything on the matter they were interrupted by something splashing into the water. All was silent for a moment as thirteen pairs of eyes shot upwards to see a large brown form slowly sinking into the water.

Darius was the first to speak up with a bemused, “What’s that?”

Mathias smiled softly as Linus let out an awe filled, “Harpies are messy eaters.”

Darius started to sputter out, “But that’s not,” only to be interrupted by his brothers’ glares. Huffing, he grumbled out as he swam up to fetch the deer, “I’m not stupid, I can take a hint.”

“That’s not what we meant!” Linus called out as he swam after him.

Mathias could not help but giggle as he watched his brothers argue and shove each other in the process of dragging the four legged animal down. Yawning, he moved over to lay along the edge of his nest. The knowledge that at least one of his winged friends was watching brought him a certain sense of security and the sound of his brothers happily bickering reminded him of happier times.

Suppressing another yawn, Mathias scooped up a discarded stone and tossed it at his nearest brother. They briefly fell silent as they looked over at him. Spotting his drowsy state the two spoke up in unison.

Darius said, “Go to sleep, we’ll watch your fry,”

While Linus said, “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.”

Nodding to the pair he laid his head down intent on resting for only a short moment.

~~~~~

Even in his sleep, Mathias could not completely relax his vigilance. So once again his instincts had him reacting before he could fully wake up.

He became aware of his surroundings after he’d already let out a shrill alarm whistle to gather his fry to himself and started to coil his tail protectively over the top of his nest. Disoriented and confused, he let out soft panicky whimpers and counted his fry before trying to figure out what was going on.

With great difficulty, Mathias calmed himself down without relaxing, having already gotten well acquainted with the dangers of relaxing after his previous instinctive danger reactions and turned his focus outwards to try and figure out what was going on.

Linus and Darius were hovering protectively above him, their heads facing in opposite directions as they scanned for whatever had set Mathias off. At first Mathias himself was unsure as well, but then at the same time as his brothers’ were turning their heads towards the sound of someone approaching the scent of someone who almost smelled like Chloe drifted through the gaps in his coils. At Mathias’ soft fearful whimper the duo moved defensively between him and the approaching merman.

As Chloe’s brother and only surviving clutchmate approached and before anyone else could speak up Darius grumpily snarled out, “What’d you decide to call yourself again? Oh wait, I remember, I don’t care! Now go away.”

The other merman was large, easily equal in size to Darius or Linus, who themselves were not that much smaller than Mathias. As he started to angrily puff up, Linus shot Darius an aghast look before asking him, “Has anyone ever told you that you have no tact?”

Linus had never liked being the voice of reason, he always preferred being in the background and playing the big dumb muscle with Darius while Tito or Mathias turned on the charm. But Mathias was not up to it at the moment, and Tito was not with them.

Brightening up, Darius turned to Linus and said, “Yeah, you, just now.”

Letting out a long suffering sigh, Linus grumbled sarcastically, “I see that you can indeed take a hint.”

Grinning, Darius smugly replied, “Told you.”

Tired of being ignored, the other merman snarled out, “What are you two doing here?”

Turning back to him with a frown, Darius once again spoke before Linus could get a word in edgewise, “You interrupted us, that’s rude, you’re rude. Didn’t your parents teach you any manners? You should go away before you infect our nibblings with your rudeness.”

The merman carefully balled his hands into fists as he snapped out, “They’re my nibblings too!”

Darius tilted his head as he thought for a moment then blandly said, “Well yeah, I said our didn’t I? Of course I did. I’m good at remembering things I care about and I care about what I said. And I said our nibblings.” He paused only long enough to take a breath before brightly continuing, “Oh I know! You were wanting to learn about raising fry, but you really should go hang out with your own brothers for that. But since your parents didn’t teach you manners I suppose I should point it out for you, it just isn’t done to hang out with your sister’s mate unless he invites you to and Matty has not.”

Clapping his hands he shifted to a helpful tone as he continued seemingly oblivious to the other man’s obviously rising anger, “So you should go on back to the kelp forest and wait with our sisters and younger siblings for Matty to bring them there to meet them.”

As Darius paused to take another breath and the other merman spat and spluttered incoherently, Linus with a voice full of horrified fascination pointed out, “He doesn’t have any brothers.”

“Oh that’s right,” Darius said while stroking his own chin thoughtfully before continuing in a vague imitation of a sage tone, “Your dad lost thirteen fry and merlings leaving just you and what’s her face alive, but considering how badly your mother’s other clutches are doing. Can that really be blamed wholly on your father? I understand now why you wanted to come learn from Matty, but it just isn’t done.” As if he was quoting something vile he said those last four words with such suppressed fury that the other three adults reflexively flinched. Then he dropped his hands to his sides, and aside from his claws sliding into place he relaxed as he grinned sharkishly and almost maniacally said, “So you should get going now.”

Cluing into his brother’s play, Linus shifted into a deceptively relaxed stance himself and menacingly said to the merman who looked mad enough to chew through rock, “Go ahead Titus, start something.”

Titus had been shifting to attack Darius when Linus spoke up. At his words he paused and breathed heavily taking a moment to actually think about whether this was a good idea or not. Then with a loud angry snarl he twisted about and rapidly swam away.

As the sound of Titus’ angry swimming slowly faded into the background, Linus slapped Darius on the shoulder and snapped out, “Barnacles! What were you thinking, starting a fight so close to the niblings?”

“Ow!” Darius complained as he rubbed his shoulder before he said self righteously, “I wasn’t starting a fight, he was going to.”

Darius then pouted at his glaring brother before sullenly muttering, “Besides, Mathias has them safely contained.”

“Urgg!” with a roll of his eyes, Linus let out a frustrated groan before he turned to check on Mathias.

Carefully placing a hand on the coiled up merman’s tail, Linus felt the scales just under his hand twitch as he coaxingly said, “Hey bud, is there anything else you’re worried about, or can you come out now?”

Mathias created a gap in between his coils and gave his fry an all clear whistle. As soon as they had swum out he relaxed into a twitching, spasming, cursing heap.

Linus and Darius looked on in frozen alarm until Mathias stilled and lay there panting. Then with Linus still locked up in shock Darius moved forward and carefully lifted Mathias’ fin away from his face as he worriedly asked, “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’ll be fine,” Mathias responded in a breathless whisper, “Moving too fast isn’t good for me right now, and then it all hit me when I relaxed.”

Darius gave him a slow uncertain nod before brightening up as he remembered something. “Stay right here!” he blurted out before darting off.

Mathias gave Linus a questioning look as Darius swam away. With a laugh Linus shook his head as he simply said, “You’ll see.”

With a shrug Mathias used his good arm to steady himself as he carefully moved back up to the edge of the nest to watch his offspring. He only had a moment to watch as they hunted amongst the coral before Darius was flourishing the skull and spinal column from the deer that had arrived right before Mathias’ nap. The skull itself had been picked clean, but the spine still had quite a bit of meat upon it.

Mathias gave Darius a small pained smile. As Darius returned his smile he quickly inserted his claws between the skull and vertebrae and ripped them asunder. Then after he passed the skull off to Linus, he proceeded to pull apart the rest of the spine into manageable chunks in a similar manner.

After handing over the first such chunk to Mathias, Darius started to speak, “It didn’t take us long to strip the meat off the fallen carcass and start feeding it to the young, but then Linus got the bright idea to hide chunks all over for the fry to hunt for.” He paused for a moment to pout at Mathias before continuing, “You never introduced your fry to me, so I had to be the one to hide it all. Which sucks because Linus is better at hiding things than me, but the fry wouldn’t stick with me while Linus hid things so it is what it is.”

At Mathias’ apologetic look, Darius waved a hand dismissively and dropped the last chunk of spine in front of him before turning to help Linus break into the brain casing. Darius inserted his fingers into the eye and nose sockets to brace it while Linus gingerly inserted two claws and finger tips from each hand into the spinal hole and slowly pulled his hands away from each other until with a loud crack the skull was broken in two.

Mathias chuckled softly as the two proudly presented the unblemished brain to him. Then after he finished eating he introduced the fry to Darius and instructed his brothers on where to put the larger chunks of bone.

The rest of the day passed relatively peacefully, the harpies continued to air drop food, his brothers dismembered and hid what they didn’t feed to Mathias, and Mathias himself dozed off and on.

However towards the end of the day, Darius was finishing a loud story that he was telling their nibblings about something their quartet had gotten up to as merlings. While he was up to that Linus sheepishly told Mathias, “Mom and Tito said that if we came to visit too often that they’d accuse us of pestering you and make up some punishable reason to keep us away. So we’re going to have to spend the next few days hanging out with our other nibblings.” Mathias frowned unhappily as he nodded his understanding, causing Linus to hunch his shoulder guiltily as he mumbled out apologetically, “Sorry.” Shaking his head Mathias squeezed Linus’ shoulder reassuringly. Then after Darius finished his exaggerated tale the two left with several worried backwards glances.

Chapter 31

There was a downside to Mathias getting so much rest during the day. And that was that he was able to dream once more. Luckily his sleep was interrupted before he could start thrashing and screaming.

Mathias calmed his breathing and heartbeat as quickly as he could so that he could listen for what had disturbed his very disturbing dreams. However what he heard was quite confusing. It sounded like a single large creature or merman, but with a soft nearly silent echo. His confusion was soon cleared up though when the currents brought him both Romulus and Titos’ scents.

Carefully and slowly so as to not unduly disturb his sleeping fry he eased himself into a seated posture. Once he had finished he did not have long to wait for his brothers’ arrival.

“See?” Tito whispered dramatically as they approached the nest, “I told you he’d be awake when we got here.”

Mathias suppressed a snort at Tito once again using a half truth to convince someone that everything was okay. Since Tito had obviously known that Romulus’ loud swimming would wake Mathias up.

Pulling a smile onto his face, Mathias gave his brothers a small wave. Romulus gave Tito’s innocent face a skeptical glance before returning the gesture. Then the two worked together to settle a large enough skipjack to last Mathias and his fry for the whole night, that they’d hauled in tandem onto the edge of Mathias’ nest. But before they could even rip off a chunk for Mathias, Sleepless, who’d been awoken by the commotion, and Glutton, who'd been drawn awake by the scent of food, set upon the open wound at the base of the tuna’s skull.

The three adults watched bemusedly for a few moments before Romulus broke the silence with a soft chuckle. Then as if a spell had been broken, Tito carefully dug into the fish’s soft belly and ripped out a large chunk to feed to Mathias. Soon, as if Glutton’s loud happy chirps and trills were a signal, the rest of the fry woke up and swarmed over the fresh source of food, and Tito and Romulus settled onto opposite sides of the family to watch and occasionally help Mathias get another portion.

Once everyone except Glutton had settled back down, Mathias properly introduced his offspring to his eldest brother.

Romulus then proceeded to run his fingers strategically down several of their ribs, test their grip reflexes, bend their arms and watch their muscles, and tease them into chasing his hand. Finishing his examination, he spoke in a soft soothing tone, “They’re healthy. Their fat layer is a little thin, but their muscles are also a bit more developed than normal.”

Mathias started off relieved but then a worried frown grew on his face at the mention of their fat layer.

Romulus patted his brother’s head comfortingly as he tried to reassure him, “You just need to find some way to get a little extra fat into their diet. They are getting enough to eat.” He paused to watch as Glutton continued to slowly eat before he dryly said, “Even if some don’t believe it.” At Mathias’ chuckle he smiled and continued, “It’d be best if you could get a whale calf or seal pup, barring that some mackerel, or something heavily gravid would be almost as good, but there should be plenty of eels and large stationary shellfish at the dropoff and I don’t think that’s too far from here.”

Nodding, Mathias whispered hoarsely, “Thanks Rommy.” Romulus frowned and looked like he was going to say something else, but at Tito’s quick head shake he stayed silent.

Tito apologetically spoke up, “Rommy came out to help me hunt, and he’ll be missed soon so we should get going.”

Mathias sadly nodded before putting on a brave smile and exchanging farewell hugs with his brothers. As they swiftly disappeared he dragged the fish’s remains into his nest and curled up to get a bit more sleep.

~~~~~

Mathias finally gave up on sleep when all that remained of the skipjack was bones. With a sigh, he ate the remains of the evidence as he watched the water slowly brighten. When the seascape was lit enough that the fry could safely navigate, Mathias took them over by the boulder so that they could poke around and hunt in its vicinity. It did not take long for his patience to be rewarded, about an hour after the sun had properly risen a large hare was dropped into the water above them.

Hearing the bloop of a splash, Mathias carefully swam up along the boulder with his youngsters following in his wake, however he ignored the sinking coney as well as his fry’s indignant shrieks as they passed it by. They would return for it and there was something more important he had to do.

Breaching the surface, Mathias held himself steady against the boulder top with his good hand as he gazed up at the familiar harpy. She stood near the water’s edge looking at him curiously since they both knew that there was no way that he would be able to climb onto the boulder in his current condition.

With a sheepish smile, Mathias said, “Hey, um, Callie right?” The difference between her and Cora were far more subtle than the difference between Cora and Clara. But Mathias was sure that this harpy’s nose was a bit more upturned and her chin just the slightest bit more rounded. Her eyes sparked gleefully as she gave him a firm nod.

With a soft sigh, Mathias apologized, “I’m sorry about the other day.”

Callie cackled and shook her head as she mirthfully said, “Don’t worry about it, people in far better times have made the same mistake.” Then she tilted her head and resumed curiously watching him. There was no way that he could’ve known who was up here so that surely was not the reason he had swam all the way up.

Mathias sighed, feeling briefly disappointed that it wasn’t Cora. He quickly shoved that aside to get to the reason he needed to talk though, “My eldest brother came by last night, and told me that the amount the fry are getting to eat is good but they need to have more fat in their diet.” His voice no longer sounded hoarse, but it still had a bit of a rasp to it.

If Callie noticed his disappointment she showed no sign of it as she hummed thoughtfully for a moment before saying, “We could bring you a pig, but their skin is much tougher than anything else we’ve brought, as are their bones… especially their skulls.”

Mathias nodded, thinking it over before softly suggesting, “You could, if it’s not too much trouble mostly debone them. Tough skin isn’t a problem, unless it’s tougher than bones. And there tends to be a lot of fat in the skin.”

“Shouldn’t be too much trouble,” she mused aloud, “and we can more easily make it look like scraps that way.” Giving him a mischievous smile, she said gleefully, “It’ll be fun!” Then she crouched down and spread her wings in preparation to take off.

Mathias quickly pushed himself back underwater to avoid the discomfort of having a harpy take off over the top of him. Then with a rueful shake of his head he headed back down making sure to snag the hare along the way.

After helping his fry to devour the hare, and having a good chunk of it himself Mathias took stock of how he was physically feeling. His left arm still had a constant sharp bone deep ache, but the pain in his ribs was far more intermittent. And as long as he didn’t move too fast his tail didn’t hurt at all. Swallowing hadn’t hurt at all, although speaking still hurt a little bit. But he knew from experience that if he over stressed himself he’d set his recovery back.

He looked around at his offspring’s near futile attempts at hunting and let out a defeated sigh. He was recovering, faster than he had any right to expect even. But if he tried to take the fry any further afield, especially since there would be no way for him to nap today then he would reverse some of his recovery. So he just had to trust that the harpies would be able to continue feeding them and not go much further away from his nest.

He chirped at his fry and slowly moved around his old hunting radius until he found an area with slightly more life to it. Finding a comfortable spot to watch from he sent them out once more to hunt and explore.

A short while later several large chunks of tied and weighted meat with some truly thick skin still attached plopped into the water above them. Pushing off from the bottom Mathias easily snagged a piece and watched in amusement as the youngsters worked together to grab hold of the others. At their proud faces and happy little babbling chirps he chuckled before leading them back to the seabed. As he bit into the meat he found himself surprised even though he had been warned about the skin that he had to saw his teeth through it just a little bit. It was however, an enjoyable meal, and very filling.

After the last scrap of pig and twine had been devoured most of the fry retreated to his hair to watch their surroundings, leaving just Shadow on his shoulder, Cuddles in his lap, and Curiosity and Glutton poking around once more amongst the sparse seaweed and broken coral.

Two more times that day he moved their position, and five more times they were fed more of the delicious pig. And when they finally made it back to the nest Mathias was barely able to stay awake long enough to settle his fry into slumber. Luckily that night was disturbed neither by nightmares, nor visitors.

Although when he awoke in the morning, there was the partial skeleton of an otherwise devoured moray in his nest. He smiled and thought of Tito as he tidied it away.

Chapter 32

Time passed in this way until one night Mathias was not so worn out that he actually awoke when Tito came calling.

Mathias woke up from a nightmare where something formless was hunting him to find Tito perched on the edge of his nest, wordlessly feeding the fry. He paused to look at his brother as he panted for breath.

Frowning Tito shifted closer but when he reached a hand out Mathias flinched away. “Hey, hey,” Tito murmured soothingly as he continued to slowly move his hand to pet the top of Mathias’ head, “It’s okay, nothing else is around, just you me and the fry.”

Mathias gulped and nodded as he wiggled slightly upright so that he could lay his head against his brother’s tail. Tito fed him what was left of the moray and continued to pet his head as he hummed a soothing lullaby. Once Mathias had calmed and started to drowse, and long after the fry had curled up against their father once more Tito spoke up, “I’ll stick around as long as I can and then I’ll bring you back to the beach.”

“Huh?” Mathias hoarsely mumbled in sleepy confusion, “Why?”

“Well,” Tito responded in amusement, “it’s already been over a week, and you were supposed to go see Helen yesterday.”

Mathias blushed and mumbled sheepishly, “Oh, I guess I lost track of the days.”

Tito nodded and replied, “Yeah I guessed so when I saw that you were still wearing the same wraps. Now go to sleep, I’ll wake you when it’s time to move.”

Nodding, Mathias closed his eyes as he gave himself over to the soothing feel of his brother’s hand on his head. As he drifted off to sleep, Tito said reassuringly, “You do look much better by the way.”

~~~~~

When Tito woke Mathias up, the surrounding waters were still dark. Yawning hugely Mathias rapidly blinked his eyes until everything came into focus. Then he roused his fry and got them settled into his hair before he himself clung to Tito’s back. Once Tito had them settled near the beach he swam back home.

Mathias could not go back to sleep though. He felt too exposed and alone. Instead he laid in the shallows as his fry snoozed in his hair, just watching and waiting for the sun to rise. As soon as it was bright enough for his fry to see he woke them up to go hunting.

Mathias chuckled as with a chorus of excited chirps and trills they flowed out of his hair to go hunting in more familiar and fruitful surroundings. He did not have to wait much longer before a pair of very familiar legs started wading his way.

He whistled to get his youngsters’ attention and then swam towards the harpy as quickly as he dared. As he got closer he became certain that it was indeed Cora, and so when he popped up out of the water he wrapped his good arm around her waist as he buried his face into the top of her belly.

“Whoa!” Cora exclaimed while flaring her wings for balance. When Mathias continued to nuzzle into her, she asked him worriedly, “Is everything okay?”

“Just missed you,” Mathias admitted in a muffled mumble.

“Aww,” Cora said as her face softened, “I missed you too. But you need to let me feed you and come ashore so Helen and Alula can look at your arm.”

“Okay,” Mathias agreed without budging an inch.

Cora stood there waiting and watching as the fry poked their heads above water. When the last curious set of eyes became fixed upon her, she spoke out with quite a bit of amused exasperation, “Helen has candy.” At those words each and every one of them raised their head up just a little bit more, only to tilt their heads and give her adorably wide eyed pleading looks. “Fuck,” she said softly before asking Mathias in awe, “Is that instinctive?”

Mathias glanced over his shoulder to see the scene behind him. Taking a moment to observe he chuckled before nuzzling back into Cora’s belly as he told her cheerfully, with the slight rasp that still lingered finally being audible, “Better give them the candy.”

“I don’t have the candy!” Cora said in a bit of a fluster as they started babbling pathetically, “Helen does!”

Sighing, Mathias reluctantly pulled away as he said in an overly dramatic mournful way, “Alright, we’ll placate them with the food you brought and then we’ll let Helen and Alula poke at my broken arm while they have some of the sweet stuff.”

Huffing softly, Cora leaned over to nuzzle the top of Mathias’ head before she straightened up and pulled her bag around so she could fish out the still twine wrapped chunks of pig meat.

After they finished their meal, which Mathias learned was also called pork, they headed, with some trepidation on Mathias’ part, to the actual beach where the healer and her apprentice awaited them.

Waiting in the surf along with Helen and Alula was a strange contraption. It had a sloped netted back for Mathias to lean back against, and some sort of tray coming off the left side and curving slightly in front.

At Mathias’ dubious expression, Alula gave her elder an, “I told you so,” look. Helen’s lips twitched and she patted the thing with her little hand as she encouraged him with, “Climb on in and sit down.”

Mathias stifled a sigh as he wiggled his way into the thing. Once he got positioned properly and was leaning back he noticed that his fry were all staring at Helen beseechingly, while she was gazing down at them in confusion. He then glanced over at Cora who was snickering helplessly. His lips twitched into a smile as he helpfully supplied, “Cora mentioned within their hearing that, ‘Helen had candy.’”

“Precocious little things aren’t they,” Helen mumbled bemusedly before speaking up, “Too much candy can be bad for you.”

Tilting his head, Mathias asked in confusion, “But it’s so sweet, how can it be bad for you?”

Chuckling, Helen explained, “Sweet things can make people fat, and being too fat can lead to all kinds of health problems.”

Mathias looked at his offspring’s cheeks that were just barely starting to plump up, and with furrowed brows he said in a slow thoughtful tone, “Arctic merfolk never seem to suffer from having a thicker layer of fat…”

“Hmmm,” Helen agreed thoughtfully as she looked between Mathias and his fry. “Alright Alula, hand over the nectarine drops to Cora, but make sure there are a few left over for Mathias.” As Mathias perked up she went on to say, “I’ll have someone send you guys some berry pies later.”

Mathias was rather eager for this until he remembered something and asked with furrowed brows, “Wait, will there be forks? Because I still don’t know how to use those.”

Helen shook her head with a laugh as she reassured him, “I’ll make sure they’re hand pies. Now relax and let us unwrap you.”

Mathias nodded anxiously as he tried to relax into their hands. While Cora kept the fry distracted in the background and with minimal movements from himself the pair carefully unwrapped his torso. Once they’d gotten his arm free they had Cora come over and help him hold it up at shoulder height while they continued unwrapping his chest. Once that was exposed they got Cora to gently set his arm onto the table before shooing her and the fry out of the way.

Then Helen touched and poked and prodded all over his ribs while asking about pain levels. It mostly just tickled but Mathias managed not to wiggle as he seriously answered her. Then came the part that Mathias was most dreading. Working together the harpies unwrapped the oiled wool from his arm. He wasn’t sure what it’d been oiled with, all he knew was it didn’t smell like anything he wanted to taste. Underneath was a set of flattened bent bronze rods that had been tied in place over some loose wool batting. For this they pulled out a pair of scissors and snipped it free. Once they’d folded the batting back Mathias got his first good look at his left arm.

It was pretty in a way if he was just thinking about the colors. The upper arm was a mottled green and yellow while the lower arm was a deep blotchy red with streaks of purple and blue.

Helen simply studied the bruising for a few moments before she spoke up in teacher mode to both Mathias and Alula, “You can tell a lot about a break from the degree of bruising. Since whatever had to break the bone had to go through the muscles first. The bruising on the upper arm has healed significantly, meaning that that’s been healing rapidly. So it should be safe for Mathias to use his upper arm now, even though a harpy would need to keep it immobilized for another week. His lower arm though, it still looks pretty bad, and we’ll need to check his fingers for sensation before we rewrap it.” The two of them nodded in response, Mathias though, with far more trepidation than Alula.

Mathias took up the breathing exercises as Helen guided Alula on testing his fingers with her blunted talon tips. Fist she gently poked the tip of each finger, which tingled painfully. Then she trailed her talons up his fingers and palms, after a bit of back and forth discussion they settled on that being a burning pain, which was not a sensation Mathias was familiar with. Finally, Helen was satisfied that she would not need to get the leeches after his arm.

When Mathias heard that that’s what she’d been testing for, he gave her a very alarmed look. Helen merely flashed him a reassuring smile as they got ready to re-immobilize his arm. First was fresh batting that went from elbow to just below his fingers with an opening for his thumb to poke through. Then came different flattened, bent bronze rods, which curved over his elbow on one side and into his hand on the other that were tied securely in place. Last was a new smelly oiled wool wrap.

Mathias made a face as the pair worked together to tightly wrap him from just above the elbow all the way down to around the base of his fingers. Finally he asked, “Why does it smell so bad?”

With a triumphant smile, Helen dryly responded, “I thought it best if your babies didn’t try to eat your bandages.”

“Well it works,” Mathias grumbled while glaring at his arm, “If anything it smells even worse than the last one.”

“No,” Helen told him softly, “Your nose is just no longer swollen so you can smell it better, and the salt water will slowly dissolve the oil.” Mathias glanced at her in confusion. He’d smelled several things just fine in the days after his beating, but then he took a few moments to think on it and realized that for that first day things might have been a bit muted. So with a sigh he nodded his acceptance.

As soon as they were done, Alula left but Helen stayed and talked with him about the theory behind using different bones as splints and which seaweeds might make good bindings and padding. At several points during the conversation she would check his fingers and make sure that they hadn’t cut off blood flow to them.

Just as their conversation was winding down, Alula reappeared with a box of berry pies. Mathias looked between the two suspiciously before gesturing to Cora to lead the fry back over.

Cora spotted the look on his face as she came over, laughing she asked, “What’s up?”

“Their timing is too perfect,” Mathias stage whispered, causing his rasp to be if anything more noticeable.

Alula squawked indignantly and pointed out seriously, “It’s purely coincidental.”

While fighting a smile, Helen took the box from Alula and said, “Come on out of the chair Mathias so that Alula can take it back.”

Mathias slid out of his seat much easier than he had wiggled into it. And it wasn’t just because he had partial use of his left arm now, it mostly had to do with the fact that when he got here the water was only up to his belly button and while he’d sat there it had climbed up to his second rib. Once he had moved out of the way, Alula grabbed the back of the chair and started dragging it to shore.

Helen opened the box to reveal four hand pies. Cora grabbed one to start tearing into little bits for the babies while Mathias snagged another to pop into his mouth. As Mathias ate Helen spent the time describing some exercises that Mathias would need to do with his left shoulder and fingers to help with the healing.

Helen closed the box as Mathias plucked the last one out of it, then gave him a few last parting words, “That rasp in your voice might be permanent, so if it doesn’t hurt to talk then continue to do so.” He nodded as she continued, “If you feel up to swimming longer distances, then do so. Just keep track of your own comfort and energy.” Then she smiled at the munching merman and his youngsters before ruffling his hair and walking off to where she could take off.

Mathias swallowed and licked his lips searching for any stray crumb before he noticed spots of glistening pink on the hands that Cora for some reason had not tucked away. He reached out and grabbed her nearest hand dragging the entirely willing harpy closer so that he could seductively lick the sticky residue off of one hand and then the other.

As soon as he’d finished Cora leaned down just a little bit and pressed her lips into his. Mathias groaned into her mouth as he held her hand tightly. Pressing into her he slid his tongue delightedly along hers until she pulled back.

Mathias panted and watched Cora until she breathlessly spoke, “Tomorrow, you should come up the river to the north. There are things to hunt, and me and Callie can teach you about the plants.”

With a twinkle in her eyes, she smiled lustily before leaning down to whisper into his ear, “And Callie can keep an eye on your babies while we have fun on the banks.” He shuddered at the thought before giving her an eager nod and slipping back into the waters where he spent the rest of the day guiding his fry around the sandy shallows.

Chapter 33

The next day Mathias awoke to clean up the remains of the snack that Tito had once more left behind. Then as he was contemplating what to pull out of his nest and replace he realized that Tito must’ve been taking care of that as well, and Mathias had to wonder at the depths that his exhaustion was pushing him to sleep in.

With a shrug, Mathias cheerfully called his fry into his hair as he set out to find this river. He’d never actually seen a river, although he theoretically knew what one was. Cora however had said that it was north of where they’d been so he headed to the beach where he let the fry out to forage and hunt as he slowly made his way northwards. Looking for a place where the fresh water flowed into the ocean.

After some time Mathias finally found the spot, excitedly he called his fry close as he swam up the pebble strewn river. As he swam, he found that he didn’t like the taste and smell of it. There wasn’t really anything wrong with it, it was just so different that he had a strong instinctive distrust of it. However he knew that there was nothing about freshwater that was harmful to merfolk and so he pushed past these feelings to properly explore.

The plant life was either shorter than he was used to or stuck up out of the water and aside from the algae, everything had a different texture than he expected. The fish though, while they looked a bit different, were all extremely skittish as fish everywhere were. He swam quite a ways up until he found a large bend in the river where the water spread out quite a bit and so the current was much slower. There he settled in near the river bank to observe his surroundings.

His offspring had hidden into his hair as the surroundings got less and less familiar and they stayed put at first when he settled down. After a while though they slowly started to emerge. Mathias stifled a chuckle as he watched the faces they made while open mouthed tasting the water. Eventually they started cautiously exploring and hunting, while never moving further than their father could quickly reach. When they started sniffing and mouthing over the plant life, Mathias did not worry, because their sense of smell and taste was better now than it ever would be. They would instinctively recognize what was poisonous. The only mistakes would be them mistakenly identifying a safe thing as not safe. It would be another couple of years before he would have to actually teach them what was and wasn’t safe to eat.

At one point a dark shadow loomed over the edge of the water. Mathias looked over expectantly only to see a deer’s velvety muzzle poking down into the water. He flexed the fingers on his left hand as he contemplated whether or not he was up to hunting such prey. It only took him a moment’s thought to decide that he better heal up a bit more first. His attention was quickly brought back to his fry when they let out a chorus of excited squeals. He could not see what they were poking at though so he gave an inquiring little chirp

They looked over at him before working as a group to bring him their still twitching prize. He took it carefully while heaping praise on the young hunters, before turning it around in his hands as he examined it. Its skin was brown, and it had no neck and four limbs. The rear limbs were longer than its body and ended in fin-like webbed feet.

Just as he was going to hand it back to them, he was distracted by splashing at a different section of the water’s edge. He glanced over and, noticing the two pairs of harpy legs he smiled and moved the very short distance until he could sit up beside them and hold out the smooth skinned creature. “What’s this?” he asked the startled pair who had been getting into Callie’s bag.

They peered closely at the ever so slightly mangled critter he was holding out. Then they exchanged a grin before Cora amusedly said, “It’s a frog.”

Mathias took another look at it and smiled, handing it back to the peeking youngsters as he let out a pleased little, “Neat.”

After they split the pork they brought between Mathias and the youngsters. They spent the next couple hours answering questions about just about everything that Mathias could see. Until Mathias felt something in the water and dove back in to pounce on it. He managed to control his instinctive reaction well enough to only use his right hand. Mathias hooked his fingers into the gills of the strange barbled fish that was very nearly the same size as the largest of his fry and looked it over before bringing it to the two that had been taking turns playing teacher and asking, “What about this?”

Cora simply mumbled, “That was so sexy.”

Callie nodded her agreement before answering Mathias and asking a question of her own, “It’s a catfish. How’d you know it was there?”

Mathias blushed and shot Cora a look full of promises as he replied to Callie before asking,“I felt it move with my tail. What does this catfish eat?” Mathias had heard of marine catfish, but he did not know much about them other than what they looked like, which was far pointier than the fish in his hand.

Callie tilted her head as she thought before saying, “Anything that can fit in their mouth I’m sure.”

Mathias thoughtfully looked over the fish before gingerly transferring it to his left hand. Then he pried open the mouth to see how wide it could open and to feel the teeth in the upper and lower jaw. After another few moments of contemplation he held it in his mouth and used his right hand to scoop up the nearest fry, which happened to be Shadow.

He settled hir against his left shoulder and let out a muffled chuckle when ze giggled and pulled the catfish’s tail into hir mouth. While ze was distracted with that Mathias was poking at her arm, trying to estimate how tough hir skin was. Finally satisfied, Mathias carefully pulled the fish in half and slipped Shadow back into the water with the tail end within hir grasp.

While he ate his half, he watched the baby scuffle over the half that had gone into the water, ready to intervene if it got too violent. Knowing that if they were truly hungry they would not be fighting over it, he was content to let them work it out for themselves.

After he’d swallowed his last mouthful, he turned to the harpies and with a gesture towards the still playfully fighting fry he asked, “Is there anything bigger than that in the river?”

They both shook their heads and simultaneously said, “No.” After they exchanged a look and a smirk Cora spoke up to say, “Not at this time of year at least. There are sharks that will swim through here in the spring to lay their eggs further up in the swamp,” Mathias perked up thoughtfully at that and Cora laughed as she continued, “And shark babies?”

“Pups,” Mathias helpfully supplied.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Cora continued, “Shark pups will start swimming downstream in about a month or so. But not right now.”

Mathias rubbed his belly thoughtfully as he softly puzzled it out, “Those sharks would’ve been coming to lay their eggs when the mermaids were also preoccupied with egg laying… I wonder if their young stay there for a few seasons or if it’s years… Shark pups do sound tasty,” he ended with before asking, “Is there anything venomous in the river?”

Cora snickered while Callie mirthfully answered, “The poisonous snakes prefer to stay on land, and bugs have a hard time biting harpies, so I’m sure they’d have a harder time with you and your hatchlings.”

With a mischievous smile, Mathias reached over to run his fingertips up and down Cora’s belly. Once he finally had her squirming, he cheerfully agreed, “You’re right, we should be fine.”

“Oh you horrible tease,” Cora playfully scolded him as he pulled his hand away, “just wait until I have you on land.”

Mathias blatantly looked Cora over before he fell back into the water and swam to an extremely low point in the riverbank that sloped gently into the slow moving pool where they had been hanging out in. There he carefully, while keeping his injured arm away from the ground, wiggled far enough onto land that only the fin on his tail tip was still dipped into the water. Once he accomplished such a feat, he took a moment to rest before he rolled over in the strange soft green vegetation and sat up giving Cora a challenging look.

Cora sputtered out a laugh and gave her sister one last questioning look. With a smile, Callie waved her off and dipped her wingtips into the water to lure the curious fry further into the watercress to give their father and her sister a little bit of privacy.

Chapter 34

As Cora stalked up onto land Mathias was briefly distracted by the short blades of foliage under his hands. Snickering, Cora explained before Mathias could even ask, “It’s grass, it’s edible, but only animals and the desperate eat it.”

Mathias smiled sheepishly but anything he might have said in response was interrupted by Cora quickly bopping down and expertly running her tongue along the seam of his penile slit. So instead what popped out of his mouth was a soft, “Oh, shit,” as he dropped back onto his elbows. But the brief jarring pain didn’t properly make it into his voice nor did it distract him overly long.

With her wings flared out for balance, Cora gave him a mischievous look as she teased him. Mathias himself couldn’t help but blush as he gave her a soft encouraging whimper. As soon as his slit had opened and his tip poked out Cora shifted to nibbling and sucking up along his flushed belly.

However it had been well over five months since they’d been able to do more than make out, whereas Chloe had been consistently taking advantage of him during that time. So the more aroused he became the more thoughts of her tried to intrude.

Just as Cora reached his chest he let out a frustrated growl and lowered himself to his back to free up his arm. So freed, his right hand slipped into Cora’s feathery hair and pulled her head along so that their lips could finally meet. She let out a startled squawk but otherwise eagerly went along with his mood.

Mathias guided her tongue to the roof of his mouth and let out a satisfied hum once her taste and scent finally allowed him to focus fully on the now. He relaxed slightly and trailed his hand down so that he could stroke his thumb along the front of her neck while she repositioned herself so that she was straddling his waist.

Every time Cora tried to pull her lips away Mathias would growl and chase after them until she gave up and simply played her small hands gently over his chest and neck. With a happy moan he closed his eyes and slid his hand further down, reveling in the feeling of feathers and skin before he shifted his hand further in. To the sound of Cora’s muffled encouraging murmurs he kneaded her perky breasts, first one and then the other.

As he pinched her lower nipples between his knuckles, he wondered what Clara will look like when she’s full of milk and if she’s already getting there or not.

The corners of Mathias’ lips curled up in a smile at the sound of Cora’s delighted squeal and he finally let her lips go, his brief distraction forgotten as he buried his face into her neck and shifted randomly about from nipple to nipple, twisting and pinching and pulling as Cora got more and more excited atop him.

When Cora bit into his exposed ear and clamped her hands onto his shoulders while grinding her crotch into his belly, Mathias didn’t want to tease her any longer, he just wanted to plunge himself into her depths. So with his tail fin now slapping about on land, he one handedly grabbed her hip and pulled her down into position, so that his engorged dick could seek out her warm entrance.

However, without the pleasant scent of harpy filling his senses it was harder to keep the intrusive thoughts at bay so when his pointy little head pierced into her he let out a small panicked whimper. At almost the exact same moment Cora moaned out, “Oh, goddess! Please fuck me Mathias!”

Focusing on Cora’s voice, Mathias was able to quickly shake it off as with an aggressive growl he pushed himself up onto his good arm to watch her with hooded eyes. He took control of his thrashing tail and whipped it up to wrap around Cora, who had her own moment of brief panic before remembering that this time they weren’t on a slippery boulder. Calming down quickly, she allowed Mathias to take full control with his tailfin plastering itself to her upper chest and neck as it wrapped around to her back, displaying just how much control Mathias could have over his very flexible tail when he focused enough to do so. Then they let out near simultaneous moans as he yanked the harpy down onto him. Working together with her legs pushing up and his tail pulling down they quickly set up a rapid pace.

Mathias watched fascinated as the one boob that wasn’t mashed flat by his tail jiggled and bounced with their motions. But as much as he thrilled at the sight of her jiggling and bouncing and the feel of her hot confines sliding over his rigid shaft, the experience was tainted by phantom pains in the back of his head and memories of someone else’s melodic voice and disdainful pale blue eyes.

Not wanting Cora to notice his discomfort Mathias lunged forward with a growl and buried his nose into the side of her head as his good thumb rubbed circles around her bouncing nipple. Gasping Cora nipped and tugged at his ear with her teeth as her unbound hand gripped tightly to his shoulder. Trying to throw himself fully into the moment, Mathias nuzzled just under her ear before sucking on the skin as he fought the urge to bite.

“Goddess yes Mathias!” Cora suddenly cried into his ear as her pussy spasmed on him.

Abruptly brought back to himself, Mathias smirked and held her close through her orgasm. Once she had calmed into a panting heap, he huskily whispered, “Sing for me.”

Before she could even fully process his demand, he’d already started guiding her hips back into rapid motion. Gripping his shoulder bruisingly tight with her little taloned hands, she stammered and stuttered her way through a drinking song where everyone fucks or dies.

“Good, good,” Mathias whispered to her as he kissed up and down her neck. It didn’t take long for her song to stall out as the feeling of Mathias releasing up into her had her crying out in pleasure once more.

They had not prolonged things enough for Mathias to get lodged inside her this time. But after flopping his tail down he still held her close and breathed in her comforting scent as they caught their breath. After a few moments he felt Cora’s small hand brushing through his hair as she said uncertainly, “Mathias?”

“Hmm?” he hummed out as he tilted his head to peer up at her with one eye.

Giving him a small smile, she asked, “Are you okay?”

Smiling in kind, he softly responded, “Yeah, just thinking.”

Caressing his cheek, she asked curiously, “Oh, what about?”

“Well…” he said hesitantly as most of his thoughts were things that might worry her, so he did not want to share them. After taking a moment to organize the ones that were less likely to worry her, and before she could get too anxious he said, “Clara’s eggs should be hatching in a month or so, right?”

“In about a month and a half,” she agreed inquisitively.

Blushing slightly, he trailed his fingers over her nipples as he mumbled shyly, “I was just wondering, when she’d start swelling with milk.”

“Men,” Cora grumbled playfully.

“And some women,” Callie called out from not too far away, causing Mathias to blush brighter as he was reminded that they’d had an audience.

Cora snickered as Mathias tried to hide his face into her neck once more before she cheerfully told him, “Her tits have been a little swollen for some time now, but her milk won’t really come in until the babes start suckling.” When Mathias peeked eagerly up at her again she snorted and laughingly said, “She’ll probably still be a little swollen when you next see her.”

Smiling at the thought, Mathias finally released Cora. Once she had clambered off of him, he wiggled his way into the water to rejoin his youngsters, with Cora following in after him.

He spent time greeting and showering affection on his fry before he set to hunting some more catfish while keeping a close eye on his lazily exploring offspring. After he’d devoured one and shared another with the youngsters he had a thought and so popped up near the harpies once more.

He glanced between the pair of blushing harpies, noticing that their nearly identical brown eyes had a suspicious gleam to them which he chose to ignore as he asked, “What are harpy hatchlings like anyways?”

As Callie started obviously sneaking towards him Cora responded to his question with a thoughtful frown, “Oh, umm, well… It’s been a while since we’ve had any, but they’re bald and helpless with eyes that barely open. Much like a human baby from what I’ve heard.”

At about this point Mathias curled his tail around Callie’s feet and pinned them down. When she squawked in surprise he gave her a wide eyed innocent look. He looked back to Cora as he puzzledly asked, “How long’s it been since your flock has had babies?”

Cora smirked at her sister before wishfully answering, “It’s been about eight years.”

“Yeah,” Callie agreed with a grunt as she tried to free herself, “we were still technically kids back then.”

“Just barely!” Cora stiffly complained.

“Yeah,” Callie once again agreed, albeit this time louder and more cheerfully, “we got to join our first battle two months after they hatched.”

Pouting, Cora grumbled almost to herself, “I wanted to help with the babies.”

Finally stilling, if only for a moment, Callie shot her sister a reassuring smile as she said, “Well they’re our clutchmate’s babies this time, so we should get plenty of opportunities to directly help.” As soon as Cora perked up at the thought she turned to Mathias and gave him a suspicious glare as he once again turned a wide eyed innocent gaze upon her. Before Cora’s snickers could fully burst past her lips Callie accusingly asked the merman, “How can you look so innocent while trapping my feet?”

Mathias knew it was a rhetorical question because neither one of them had been using their full strength, so if she’d really been trying to get free she could have. But he gave her question serious consideration as he tilted his head in thought and slightly shifted his tail off her feet. Finally as Callie started obviously sneaking towards him once more, he answered, “Because I trust you.” The sad fact was that he no longer even trusted his mother and older sisters as much as he trusted this harpy that he’d met only a handful of times and without trust, there was no playfulness.

At his sadly wistful smile, Callie stopped and just stared at him for a moment before hooking him with her wings and pulling him into her chest. It was Mathias’ turn to squeak in surprise. After his initial brief moment of panicked freezing up, Mathias leaned into the harpy as he contentedly nuzzled into her collarbones. She kept him within the warm cocoon of her wings for a little while before folding them away and asking, “Will you be back tomorrow?”

Mathias shook his head firmly before regretfully telling them, “I don’t want to over hunt the area, so we’ll probably go to the dropoff and hunt up and down the clift for the next few days.” Straightening up, he gave the pair a reassuring smile as he went on to say, “I’ll do a better job at tracking the days though, and I do want to check out the swamp you guys mentioned sometime after the fry have grown into merlings and have started talking.”

The sisters nodded as that made sense before they leaned in and planted firm kisses to both of his cheeks. Blushing furiously, Mathias dropped confusedly back into the water while the pair left only to return a few hours later with another fatty meal for the merfolk family.

Mathias ate in bemused silence as the two outrageously flirted with him. Once he had finished he pulled Cora in for an enthusiastic kiss. Spotting Callie eagerly watching Mathias blushed before leaning shyly towards her. Grinning Callie stepped into the offered kiss and mostly kept it to their lips moving against each other as she cradled his face. Until he started to pull away and then she nipped at his lower lip before letting him go.

After his offspring had gotten head bumps from the harpies they exchanged farewells with Mathias and he began his journey home.

Chapter 35

Mathias had been bringing his fry to the dropoff for the past several days. He didn’t have many memories of his own earliest days but he was pretty sure that most mermen would have preferred to wait until their offspring were quite a bit older before bringing them to such a sharply vertical hunting grounds. The coral near and for a short ways down the cliff was thriving, and there were many crevices and tunnels in the cliff for things to hide, forage, and breed in. So the hunting was good, but the danger was also quite a bit higher than it would be among more typical corals. After all, at a dropoff like this one a merman and his fry risked attracting things from the deeper, open sea, Larger predators than a typical reef could support, creatures that might decide a merman was prey.

With that in mind, Mathias was quite proud of how wary they were in any new environment, feeling pleased even though they should be wary in this place. He couldn’t help but inwardly smile at how well they paid attention to his nonverbal cues. So while there had been a few brushes with danger, he’d managed so far to keep everyone from even the smallest bump.

So when he held still to listen to a couple of things both about his size moving through the water towards them, his fry abandoned or took with them whatever they had been doing to disappear into his hair. Cautiously, and moving in such a way as to make hardly a sound he moved away from the wall so that he could hear more clearly. After a few moments he heard his brothers’ distorted voices as they slowly drew closer. Mathias chuckled and guessed that they were searching for him. Shaking his head he moved back to his previous position and chirruped the all clear to his fry.

It didn’t take long for the voices to get clearer and then to become audibly excited as they caught his scent. Soon enough Mathias was looking away from his offspring with a smile to return his brothers’ greeting. Only for his face to fall when he saw how bruised and scuffed up both Linus and Darius were. “What happened?” he asked fretfully while fighting an inexplicable sense of guilt.

Puffing up and showing Mathias his usual goofy grin, Darius said, “You should see the other six guys!” Linus rolled his eyes and playfully shoved Darius’ shoulder. But any other response was interrupted by the fry excitedly swarming their uncles, who happily patted their heads and listened to their babbling as they showed off their most recent catches and discoveries.

Once the fry were satisfied and had returned to hunting and exploring, Linus told his still obviously worried brother, “Titus gathered some friends and ambushed us, but he keeps forgetting that we have friends too. So we’re fine.” Flashing Mathias a smile, he remarked happily, “You look much better today.”

Mathias hardly heard him though, nor did he notice Darius’ happy nodding. Instead he frowned in thought and led the other two to swim in slow circles around the youngsters. Finally he asked, “Did you guys get in trouble?”

Linus shook his head, but before he could speak to reassure their brother Darius blurted out, “Being told to guard the older merlings for a week straight wouldn’t of been a punishment at all if we’d had the time to come visit you!”

Mathias let out a relieved chuckle as Darius shot Linus a triumphant smirk. Linus harrumphed at them both but did seem to relax a bit as Mathias took the news in good humor. While they settled into a companionable gossip fest Mathias took a moment to sadly wonder what else everyone was keeping from him, and by extension Darius who was never willing to keep anything from their quartet, just to keep him from worrying.

~~~~~

Linus had just finished distributing a moray that Mathias had caught to Mathias and his fry while Darius was busily prying open a large clam with Curiosity and Follows closely watching when Mathias heard something just a little bit larger than himself swimming towards them. He let out a shrill alarm whistle. As the fry vanished into his hair he whispered, “Mako,” to his alarmed brothers before carefully pressing his back to the cliff face.

As Mathias let out a soft threatening growl and looked in the direction from where this same shark had been appearing from for the past few days, Darius shot upwards, while Linus swiftly sank downwards. As the creature got closer, Mathias alternated whipping his tail aggressively through the water and threateningly flaring the tip.

Ever since the first time it had shown up the shark would slow down and swim uncomfortably close as it decided whether or not it was worth it to try for the injured, isolated merman. Until today, it had evidently been finding the answer to be no.

Today, uncomfortably close had become dangerously close. Still, Mathias was hoping that it wouldn’t notice anything wrong and continue its usual pattern so his brothers could more easily ambush it.

Just as he had hoped, it didn’t seem to notice anything. Just as it was getting a little too close for comfort Linus from below let out a soft little click that the shark also didn’t seem to notice, shortly followed by two speeding mermen slamming into the mako’s opposite pectoral fins in such a way as to drive the startled and thus thrashing animal into an aileron roll with the brothers hanging on while they worked together to control that roll despite the shark’s frenzied struggling. Once they had it slowed and then stopped, upside down and unwillingly calmed, they took a moment to calm their own excited breathing.

Not smelling any fresh blood in the water, Mathias was finally able to relax. With a sigh of relief he asked, “All good?” This was not the first time the brothers had used this well practiced maneuver to hunt a shark, in fact all four of them, including the currently absent Tito, had faint scars on their sides and arms from where they’d slipped up while initiating the roll. And there had been multiple times when they were younger that their father had had to rescue them when they’d fumbled the crash badly enough.

Flashing him cheerful grins they both gave him agreeable nods before turning their attention back to the shark. They sank their claws into its belly and carefully but quickly pulled it open. Cutting a shark open and especially killing one beforehand had been so much easier when they were still subadults with sharper, more maid-like claws, but they also didn’t have as much mass to make the pounce and use to control the roll back then.

A brief flash of Chloe’s claws swinging towards his face flashed through Mathias’ mind. Shuddering, he tried to push the thought from his mind as he swam over to the dying shark and directed his youngsters to go after its exposed organs. It wouldn’t be the cleanest shark kill the brothers had ever pulled off, but it would be quick.

The thirteen of them ate as much as they could as quickly as they could, so when thankfully smaller sharks started showing up they quickly abandoned the carcass.

Mathias figured that they’d had enough excitement for the day, and the fry had gotten a bellyful of the shark’s huge fatty liver. After a moments thought he decided to take them to the sandy shallows for the rest of the afternoon.

With the youngsters roaming their most familiar of hunting grounds, Mathias happily chatted with his brothers about what it was like when his fry were freshly hatched. A few times during which he noticed the shadow of a harpy and felt a pang of longing that he did not dare to show even these two.

Later, after he’d said farewell to his brothers, he told his young a bedtime story and sang them to sleep, he had time to reflect on his day.

He missed his brothers, and wished they could be around more, especially since even having just one of them around would make it safer when large inquisitive predators drew near.

But he also did not want them exposed to Chloe anymore than they had to be. Letting out a small whimper, he shied away from thoughts of what she might do if she felt that they were interfering with how she thought things should be. And if it were just the three of them, with no other maids around, there would be nothing anyone could do.

He sighed, turning his thoughts back to the harpies who had stayed away even when he went to the shallows because his brothers were with him. As he fell into a fitful nightmare fueled sleep, he couldn’t help but wonder if they were trying to keep him safe, or if he was a burden on them that they were glad to see his brothers taking up.

Chapter 36

Over the next few days Mathias got his splint switched out for a stinky wrap, and settled into a routine of spending most of his time at the dropoff with occasional trips to the shallows. Until one evening as they were returning to his nest, he was contemplating heading up the river again the next day when a scent stopped him cold. Chloe was just up ahead, most likely waiting at his nest.

Mathias let out a soft whimper, and the fry that had been exploring in his wake fled into his hair. Every instinct Mathias had was screaming at him to flee or form a protective coil over his fry. But he knew that would just make things worse. Chloe was waiting, she expected him to go to her. If he went too far away from her expectations she might actually kill him this time. Or drive him to defend himself, which would amount to the same thing.

Trembling and shaking, Mathias clasped his elbows tight to his body as he slowly resumed his journey. The only thing allowing him to move was his greater fear of what she might do if he did not. Once he finally caught sight of her form gracefully lounging upon the edge of his nest, he could not quite hold back a distressed fearful whimper. She looked up at the small sound and rolled her eyes as he flinched and cringed away from her before silently pointing to what she had left in the nest. She was obviously not done giving him the silent treatment.

Slowly, Mathias forced himself to approach, but before he had gone too far he could already smell the scent of blood and octopus so when he peeked in at the mangled octopus remains he was able to hold back the sad moan that wanted to come out.

While flinching away from every small move that Chloe made, it took him a few tries to chirp his fry back into the nest. Finally he managed and then waited while watching his frowning mate from the corner of his eye to see if she wanted anything else.

Chloe’s nostrils flared as she looked him over critically. Homing in on his bandages, she snatched his left hand from where he had it tucked under his right elbow, leaving relatively light scratches on his right arm and belly in the process.

Mathias squeaked fearfully and shrank into himself as he did his best to resist the urge to pull away, he didn’t want to set her off any more than she was. After all, he’d rather suffer more injuries than be subjected to more of her orders.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at him and gripped his wrist painfully tight as she examined his arm. After a few minutes she coldly asked, “What is this?”

Mathias really wished she would go back to not speaking with him, because he really didn’t want to answer that. Trembling, he however forced himself to stammer out, “It-it’s a wrap.”

She gave him a dubious, suspicious glare and was silent for a beat that wasn’t long enough for him to continue even if he’d wanted to. She then asked him bitingly, “And where did this wrap come from?”

Mathias had been thinking about what to say if Chloe were to show up and ask, so he had a ready answer for her, although he could not hold back a fearful quaver from his mildly raspy voice, “Some harpies found me and used me to teach their trainee healer.”

Mathias watched, still from the corner of his eye, in horrified fascination as Chloe’s suspicious stare slowly morphed into a look of conciliation. She gazed at him in such a fashion for a few moments until she seemed to tire of his lack of visible reaction and told him coaxingly, “You shouldn’t trust them.”

He made a small noncommittal noise. He could not force himself to agree with her, but he also dared not openly disagree.

She continued in such a manner, “What reasons could such strange creatures have for interacting with you? Surely they’re selfish ones. They’re not your mate, so unlike me they have no vested interest in our offspring’s well being.”

Mathias looked down and away as she spoke down to him. The things she was saying were completely opposite to how things were. And yet, it made him feel sad, and a bit guilty for taking advantage of the harpies’ generous nature. But, he selfishly refused to push them away either.

With a small hint of self satisfaction in her voice, Chloe almost smugly reassured him, “I’ll always be here to take care of you and them.”

Mathias nodded glumly, unable to summon up any other sort of response.

Chloe gave his wrist another squeeze, at his pained flinch she let go while cheerfully telling him, “I’ll see you next week!”

After letting his arm drift down, Mathias held himself completely still until he could no longer hear even the whisper of her departure. Then he slumped in on himself before sadly settling in with his fry.

~~~~~

Chloe had driven Mathias into such a state of depression that nothing seemed able to shake him emotionally, not even when his fry shed their scales and finished developing into merlings. But since the upsetting things weren’t quite as upsetting anymore, he wasn’t trying overly hard to pull himself out of the murk. So even the hatching of Clara’s eggs and Cora trying to get him to suggest M names didn’t garner as much of a reaction as anyone, himself included, expected. Somehow though, through it all he was able to keep an alert eye on his offspring and their surroundings.

It wasn’t until Darius showed up alone that Mathias was able to snap out of his apathy.

Mathias looked away from the vegetation at the river mouth that his merlings were hunting over, amongst, and within to give his usually cheerful brother a confused worried look, “Where’s Linus?”

Darius rubbed the back of his neck, looking quite lost as he mumbled, “Juno asked him to be her mate.”

Mathias blinked and let out a simple, “Oh,” as he fought a surge of jealousy. “I hadn’t realized that so much time had passed,” he mumbled in an attempt to distract himself.

“Yeah,” Darius tactlessly agreed, “it’d be pretty hard to keep track of time when you’re so isolated.”

Mathias sighed and shook his head as he realized that he wasn’t really jealous that Linus had gotten picked by Juno. He was more resentful of the fact that he didn’t get to accept someone he could have gotten along with. But that wasn’t his brother’s fault. Sighing again, he rubbed his face and asked Darius with a great deal more interest than he’d been able to fake for the past few months, “So what are you going to do now?”

Shrugging, Darius answered with a frown, “I’m not sure. Tito tends to sleep through the funnest part of the day,” Mathias flinched at that, because Tito didn’t used to sleep very much during the day. Darius however obliviously continued, “I suppose I could start spending more time with some of my lovers. But I don’t want to give the guys the idea that I’m ready to take a partner…” Things were complicated for Darius. He did have a slight preference for men, but it was only slight and he really wanted to experience having a mate to raise merlings with, but the mermaids preferred mates and partners who were only interested in maids and their school had more men than maids in it. So they could afford to be picky about it.

“You could try to spend some extra time keeping an eye on the merling schools,” Mathias nervously pointed out.

Darius flashed Mathias his customary smile as he said, “Hey, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Oh, I might even be able to use it as an excuse to visit you more!” he finished excitedly prompting Mathias to let out a soft chuckle. Grinning even wider somehow at the sound, Darius excitedly asked, “So, tell me about what we’re doing today?”

With a small brief smile that felt oddly unfamiliar, yet had Darius beaming at him. Mathias turned to show him what his towheaded merlings were doing. He froze up for a minute, startled to see the short blond hair growing upon the nearest head. Then he felt a pang of guilt as he realized that he’d just been going through the motions long enough that while he was fully aware of the changes his fry turned merlings were going through, he hadn’t actually consciously thought about it.

Clearing his throat, he gave himself a little shake to try and scatter the mood from his mind before he reached out a tentative hand to touch the top of hir head. Babbling happily ze leaned into the touch as it turned into a full on caress. Soon Darius was forgotten as Musical cuddled into his arms. So when Darius laughed at the sight of the rest of the merlings swarming out of the tangle of vegetation to demand cuddles and pettings Mathias startled and didn’t brace himself properly, allowing the merlings to crash him into their uncle. Fortunately, Darius was braced and fully willing to assist in cuddling and petting.

Mathias’ emotions bounced wildly between guilt and joy as his laughing brother and babbling merlings pushed him into the middle of a squirming cuddle ball. Determinedly, he decided that no matter how much everything else hurt, his fry, no, his merlings needed him to be more fully present.

Pushing the guilt firmly to the side for the moment, Mathias turned the cuddle ball into a drawn out gentle free-for-all game of roughhousing until the merlings wandered off to hunt some more, which is when he got into catching up with Darius.

Chapter 37

The next morning Mathias took the time to fully tend his nest for the first time in months before heading to the shallows where he hoped to see one of the harpies. He had spent more time than usual on nest tending, so once they got to the shallowest area it didn’t take long for someone to show up.

Mathias felt a warm glow when he noticed Cora’s legs wading towards him through the water. He started to eagerly swim over but slowed as the happiness morphed into guilt. So when he got to her he slowly popped up out of the water to nuzzle into her belly as he let out a soft contrite, “Sorry.”

Alarmed, she cupped a wing protectively around him and counted the swarming merlings before asking confusedly, “Why?”

He wasn’t sure what to say, but he tried, “I’ve been acting…”

When he petered off Cora helpfully supplied, “Off?” At his silent nod, her demeanor softened considerably. She combed the tips of her talons over the top of his head as she gently told him, “It’s okay. Do you want to talk about it?”

Mathias shook his head and pushed himself up further so she could more easily reach the top of his head and he could wrap his arms around her torso. Sighing contentedly, he rested his face between her pleasing little mounds as she caressed his head and sang a soothing lullaby.

Part way through the third repetition, Mathias suddenly spoke up, “So do you remember talking about the girls competing to challenge me in a year?” He’d been thinking about what he could do for the harpies since the day before and he thought he might have something.

Chuckling, Cora nodded and folded her wing back up as she spoke, “Yes, but we wouldn’t want to keep you from your merlings that long.”

Mathias shook his head against her chest before asking, “What if I asked Tito if he was interested?”

She hummed thoughtfully for a moment before asking, “Is he as good at catching things on the wing as you are?”

Smiling slightly, he couldn’t stop himself from licking between her boobs before answering as she squeaked, “If anything he’s better at it. Well at least the aim part. He’s smaller than me, so he was able to hunt seabirds longer than I was.”

Grinning, she teased a talon tip behind his ear as she said, “Well, we haven’t been hired for a proper fight in years so the girls will be eager to compete over the chance.” She hummed thoughtfully again as he turned his head to kiss her wrist before warning him, “The competition will take a week though.”

Mathias gazed soulfully up at her as he hesitantly remarked, “I still need to talk with Tito, he might not want his first time to be after a fight.”

Cora gaped at him, Mathias had given her the impression that merfolk were just as free with sex, although differently so, as harpies, and asked in confusion, “How is he still a virgin?”

With a brief wry smile, Mathias shrugged a shoulder and said, “He wants to be his lover’s equal, and he’s not attracted to men.”

“I see,” Cora muttered darkly before brightly pointing out, “There are a handful of harpies that fish in the lagoon near the healthier coral.”

Nodding thoughtfully, he murmured, “I’ll let him know.”

Ruffling his hair, she cheerfully reassured him, “Even if he doesn’t want to spar with the winner, I’m sure the captain can come up with some sort of reward to make everyone do their best in the competition.”

He relaxed at that and let out a soft, “Alright,” before hooking her head down for a deep searing kiss.

Pulling away, Cora asked huskily, “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

“Hmm,” Mathias said thoughtfully, “I was thinking of going up river and seeing if I could pull a deer into the water. And then depending on how that goes I might take the merlings further up to check out the swamp you and Callie told me of.”

Her eyes lit up as she gushed gleefully, “Oh that sounds exciting to watch!”

Mustering up a chuckle, he gave her a wink as he teased playfully, “Maybe you should see if Callie wants to watch too.”

“I should!” she exclaimed eagerly and pulled away to quickly wade back towards land.

Almost immediately, she stopped to pat and greet each merling. When she resumed her journey, Mathias called after her affectionately, “I’ll see you in a bit!”

Waving a wing at him, she called back cheerfully, “Most definitely.”

He watched longingly until she took off, and then he sank back into the water to take his merlings up river.

He journeyed a bit further upstream than he had been doing, until he found a deeper meander with a grass covered slope that came right down to the edge. After making sure that there were no sharks lurking about, because if Juno had gone gravid then it was spring, and so the right time of year for sharks to be coming up river to birth their young, Mathias set his fry to hunting amongst the river weeds while he lurked near the bank.

After well over an hour, his patience was rewarded as a deer finally stopped for more than a brief drink. Tensed and at the ready, he watched the velvety muzzle tip until the head lifted up out of the water. Then he sprang towards it and grabbed the head clumsily, one hand gripping an ear and the other the back of its jaw. Sinking his claws in, he managed to drag the screaming animal into the water with him. Before he could wrap his coils around it and mercifully snap its neck, it managed to shake the hand on its jaw loose and strike him a glancing blow to the head with a front hoof as it tried to surge towards land.

As he struggled to maintain his grip, Mathias realized his mistake and adjusted tactics. Thinking back to what he’d learned while hunting seals and other mammals, he stopped trying to coil around the doe and grasped the mammal by its vulnerable throat with the same hand it had freed up by shaking him loose.

Crushing its neck with one hand, he yanked its head back with the other as he pushed himself forward to latch his teeth over the jugular near the base of the jaw of the still struggling animal. Ripping its throat open with one bite when he expected it to take several, he brought them to the bottom of the meander and held it until its struggles had completely ceased.

Mathias turned to where his wide eyed merlings were watching and called them over to enjoy a meal together. Babbling excitedly, they swarmed over to rub and nuzzle against their father as he ripped open the carcass. Smiling contentedly, he pulled out the tougher bits to eat for himself and encouraged them to go after all of the softer, fattier bits.

Once nothing was left but broken hollow bones, Mathias peeked up above the water to spot a trio of harpies on the shore. Not only had Cora brought Callie along, but Alula had tagged along as well.

He slipped back into the water, only to pop up again at the bank. Pulling a smile onto his face, he propped his arms up on the grass as he greeted the trio with a simple, “Hello.”

The sisters swiftly chorused out an excited, “Hi,” as Alula leaned down to carefully examine his face.

Holding a slight smile on his face, he blinked at her confusedly until she gestured to his forehead and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Huh?” he mumbled as he felt over his forehead. He’d nearly forgotten about the deer striking him there. Shrugging, he dropped his hand back to the grassy bank as he answered, “My head’s not singing and there are no swimming lights, but it’s a little tender so I suppose it might bruise.”

Flashing him one of her rare smiles, Alula straightened up as she remarked, “That’s good.”

Mathias ducked his head briefly before he looked to the sisters who were giving him a matching pair of lusty gazes. Blushing, he shivered in anticipation before peeking at Alula who was peering dubiously into the deep, for a harpy, water. Guessing that Alula was here to watch the merlings Mathias blurted out, “I’m going down stream about three meanders!” Then he ducked back into the water and called his merlings to himself as they swam back to a much shallower meander.

Chapter 38

Finding the area and confirming that it was the right speed and depths, Mathias peeked out of the water to watch the three circle around to land. Knowing that they could’ve easily beat him here, a small smile tugged at his lips.

Mathias turned his eyes to the river bank, and just as he’d spotted a place to slide out, Alula beat him there and used that spot to hop into the water with a splash. He gave his head an amused shake and swam over to entrust his youngsters into the trainee healer’s care.

Ignoring the amused gleam in her eyes, he clambered onto land and looked nervously back and forth between the two advancing, smirking, nearly identical harpies. He’d continued to be intimate with Cora for the past few months, although it hadn’t brought him as much joy as it normally did. But Callie hadn’t tried to do anything more than flirt and kiss in that time. And he’d never been with two maids at once before.

With a shrug of his shoulders, he decided to dive right in and see what happened, so he scooched further onto land as Cora slipped around behind him. “So, how are we…” he started to ask before Cora turned his head so that her lips could crash into his.

Callie sidled up to him and trailed her hands and lips down his chest as he kneaded at the grass, unsure as to what he should be doing. When she got to the lightly flushed triangle leading to his scales she paused to huskily say, “When you’re about to cum tap my shoulder.”

“Mmhmm,” he mumbled out a muffled acknowledgement as he reached up to hold Cora’s head to him with one hand.

Callie’s tongue flicked out to lick around the edge of his belly button that was sitting at the top of the triangle of currently extra sensitive skin. Mathias moaned softly into Cora’s mouth, his other hand flying up to tangle into Callie’s feathery hair as his flushed skin darkened under her ministrations. She trailed a talon tip from his belly button down to his scales, causing the rest of his tail to finally leave the water as it crashed into and wrapped around a nearby tree.

Cora’s lips left his when she looked up at the shaking branches of the tree. With a soft growl Mathias buried his nose under her ear as he alternately licked and sucked on her neck. Cora closed her eyes, pressing her chest to his shoulder. Letting out a soft hum of pleasure she tilted her head to give him better access.

Callie was also briefly distracted by his tail. When she looked back to the other two, she chuckled and smirked before nipping at the skin just above his scales with her very human-like teeth. Mathias’ abdominals quivered in pleasure as his hands reflexively tightened in both of the harpies’ hair.

Delightedly, Callie continued her teasing nips until Mathias let out one small desperate whimper. Then she turned her attention to his slowly circling, straining member. However, what she had intended as a teasing kiss on the tip ended with a startled squawk as his length surged into her mouth.

At Cora’s laugh and smugly muttered, “Warned you,” Callie looked up to spot Mathias staring down at her with a feral lusty look on his face. Duly impressed with his self control, she stared provocatively up at him as she languorously suckled upon the shaft in her mouth.

Mathias let out a low throaty growl at that and with deliberate gentleness released both harpies’ heads, before tenderly trailing one hand down Callie’s wing to her hip. Once his careful kneading at said hip had her closing her eyes in pleasure, Mathias slowly slid his hand around to get a good grip and lifted her up to spin her around, eliciting another started yet muffled squawk.

Darkly chuckling, Mathias stared at her twitching, dripping opening. As he was licking his lips in anticipation Cora nipped at his ear before whispering, “She does want you to manhandle her, but you should try teasing her first.” Quirking an eyebrow, Mathias briefly looked over his shoulder, so Cora smirked and continued, “Start off with blowing on her clit, and then use the lightest of pressures.”

With a thoughtful nod and Cora’s warm presence at his back, Mathias adjusted his grip with both hands to tilt Callie to a better angle as she braced her own little hands on his hips so that she could slowly bob her head upon him.

Humming softly, he took in her intoxicating scent before blowing gently upon her little bump. Her whole body shuddered and she clenched his skin briefly but otherwise didn’t visibly react. Smirking now, he leaned in closer and blew more firmly on that little button. With a harder shudder she gripped him tightly as her tongue started moving in counterpoint to her increasingly paced head bobbing.

Groaning appreciatively, he traced the tip of his tongue along the ridges below her drooling cunt until she started squirming in his hands and whined desperately. Rumbling triumphantly, he sucked her clit into his mouth, his tongue rolling and pressing over it as he allowed himself to get lost in her very eager upside down blowjob.

After about the third time that Callie’s wings suddenly and briefly fluttered, Mathias felt that he was too close to cumming and he hadn’t noticed Callie cumming at all. He was tempted to look to Cora, still tightly pressed to his back, for guidance. He chose instead to double down on Callie’s pleasure. He could tell that she was enjoying herself from the way that she trembled upon him, and the dripping of her feminine juices over his face, and especially how her clit twitched in advance of her fluttering. Settling her legs against his shoulders, he shifted to holding her aloft with one hand as he groped along her front until he found some pointy nipples to play with.

When her wings fluttered once more, and her breath, hot and heavy flowed over his shaft and into his slit, Mathias moaned desperately and hurriedly tapped on her shoulder before bringing his hand back up so that his thumb could replace his mouth on her clit.

Thrusting his tongue into her depths, he dragged her slickness down so he could rapidly circle his thumb pad around her little pleasure nubbing as he massaged her insides with his tongue. He found it hard to focus however as she pulled back to suck on just the tip of his cock. Her tongue pressed and rubbed at it as she sucked eagerly. With only one hand bracing her up the other moved in a rapid firm circular motion up and down his cock, giving him quite a unique sensation from the oddly soft slipperiness of the soft scales on the inside of her fingers and palm.

Soon he had to cease all motion and simply held onto her as, with a loud breathless moan, Mathias spurted into Callie’s gulping mouth. Once his member started its slow retreat Callie rested breathlessly against his torso as he got back to the enjoyable task of trying to make her climax.

Callie quickly started wiggling delightfully against him only for all motion to cease a moment later, aside from her suddenly flapping wings and her pussy spasming around his tongue. Wondering if the breathless harpy was finally going to get her orgasm, Mathias increased his pace until a sudden squirt of fluids from her clit startled him into stillness.

“Goddess!” Callie suddenly cried out as she tried to pull away from his face. “Too much!” Chuckling behind them, Cora ducked down to dodge the suddenly kicking feet.

Alarmed and worried, Mathias carefully set the wiggling harpy down. As her legs collapsed he pulled her against his chest and asked worriedly, “You alright?”

“Yeah,” she panted out breathlessly, “that’s just never happened before.”

“Ah, sorry,” he mumbled confusedly as he wondered what he’d done wrong, or how he could’ve made things better for her.

“Why for?” Callie asked dazedly as she gazed up at him, with her legs collapsed the top of her head only came up to his armpit.

“I uh, didn’t manage to make you cum?” he mumbled guiltily as he glanced over his shoulder to check on Cora who was busily exploring the muscles on his back.

Cora started snorting and snickering as Callie spoke out in bewilderment, “But I came like five times?” She paused for a minute before musing out loud, “Although that last one was fucking weird, but even it felt good, although too sensitive.”

Mathias looked back and forth between the mirthful and the bewildered harpy before Cora kindly stifled her snickers and told him, “Not all girls are loud when they cum. Some, like Callie, are quite silent during a good fucking.”

Mathias furrowed his brows thinking it over before he slowly and thoughtfully, almost questioningly, said, “Cora and Clara also flap their wings, although far more erratically when they cum.”

“I had to learn to do that,” Callie admitted embarrassedly, “because everyone expects a harpy to flap their wings when they cum.”

Mathias relaxed slightly at that, but before he could ask any questions Cora was distracting him by nipping sharply along his neck. Shuddering, he let out a soft little sound of pleasure as he reached back to caress Cora’s face. Huskily, he pointed out to the eager harpy, “I do have a refractory period.”

“A what?” Callie asked as Cora’s mouth was too busy sucking on his ear to do so.

“A refractory period,” Mathias repeated before twisting around to drag Cora to his front as he explained, “It’s the time between when a man eej… um, cums, and can get erect again.”

Hugging both of the harpies close, Mathias buried his face into Cora’s neck, who quickly resumed nipping and sucking upon his ear and neck while Callie mused aloud, “Lizard men can go twice before they need a rest, and then they need an hour. How long do mermen need?”

“Dunno,” Mathias mumbled distractedly, “I’ve heard anything from five to twenty minutes.” However, thinking about time got him thinking about his merlings and so he flopped his tail fin back into the water and lifted his head as he pointed out, “I should go check on the merlings.”

“They’re happy and playful,” Alula breathlessly called out, “So go ahead and take care of Cora.”

Mathias looked towards the blushing harpy who was peeking shyly at the trio. He had long gotten used to Callie boldly stealing glances at him and Cora together, so Alula’s shy peeks garnered no more reaction than a mild blush.

After a moment’s consideration, he felt nothing nearby, even approaching the size of his merlings, so he let out a soft little, “Alright,” before dropping his head back to Cora’s neck to spread a trail of gentle little kisses there.

The sisters took that as permission to rile him back up, and so while Cora renewed her assault on his neck, Callie twisted around in his arm, still unable to support herself but shamelessly willing to use his support to run her talons over his ribs while sucking his flat nipple into her mouth.

Mathias gasped and shivered at that, no one had ever paid attention to his nipples before and he found it an oddly pleasant sensation. He wormed his arm under Callie’s wings so he could more easily fondle her front, as his lips sought out Cora’s in a deep searching kiss. The three of them stayed entwined like that for a bit, with Cora’s front wiggling against one half of his torso while Callie teased the other half, and Mathias felt over both sets of perky bosoms.

Cora kept his lips firmly captured with her own for a while, until Callie regained enough control of her legs to push herself up and bite his neck right under the back corner of his jaw. With a shuddering groan Mathias switched to kissing Callie while Cora went back to nipping and sucking on his neck. They continued switching back and forth like that for a while, until Mathias’ tail crashing into the tree again let the frisky harpies know that they’d fully succeeded.

After the pair exchanged excited grins, Callie wiggled free to slip around behind Mathias. Once there was only one harpy within his grasp, Mathias yanked her into his lap to grind her wet nethers against his belly and groin. Cora clutched at his shoulders as they moaned out their pleasure together.

Feeling Callie press her chest to his back, Mathias shivered as he leaned back into her. Finally he gave in and pressed Cora properly into his probing cock. Mathias let out a soft sigh of pleasure as his cock shot into her depths. Then he simply held Cora still upon him until Callie whispered into his ear, “You know how she loves it.” Letting out a soft hum he rubbed his cheek briefly against Callie before grabbing Cora’s hips tight enough that his claw tips were digging into her skin and setting up a rapid, bruising pace.

Once Cora took over bouncing on his shaft, and with Callie playing with his neck and shoulders, Mathias moved his hands to roughly fondle Cora’s bouncing tits. Cora, for her part, encouraged this by arching her back with each bounce, thrusting her tits against his hands each time,

Mathias watched Cora’s face entranced, as Callie’s attentions allowed him to stay more fully in the moment than he’d managed to be in a while. This was such a different experience that he momentarily forgot how rough Cora liked it and reached up to gently caress her cheek. Cora did lean into it briefly, before stretching her neck up in a not too subtle reminder as to what she really wanted that hand doing.

A small smirk tugged briefly at his lips as he allowed his hand to fall upon her neck, letting the motion of her thrusting aid in his teasing caress before he tightened his hand, carefully feeling the beat of her pulse and the reduced whooshing of air through her neck.

“You can squeeze tighter than that,” Callie murmured teasingly as Cora let out a needy moan of pleasure. Mathias let out an acknowledging grunt as Callie sucked on his ear. He knew he could squeeze tighter, he knew she would even like it if he did, but he was unwilling to cut off her air flow anymore than this, and Cora seemed to take a certain perverse pleasure in knowing that he was going as far as he was willing to go.

Mathias studiously watched the bouncing Harpy’s face until her wings started flapping erratically as she let out her loud squeals of pleasure. Then he shifted his hands to grab and hold her close so he could pay full attention to the extremely pleasant way her pussy spasmed and pulsed upon his member.

Once she had collapsed into a panting puddle within his arms, he started shifting his hips to thrust shallowly into her and turned his head to capture the teasing lips from his neck in a fierce kiss.

As she recovered, Cora pushed herself upright, watching the other two kiss as she worked with Mathias’ movements to try and get the merman off again. Moaning in pleasure, one of Mathias’ hands flew up to tangle into Callie’s hair as the other clutched at Cora.

Being so soon after cumming once, it took longer for him to cum the second time. His penis was starting to ache by the time it finally happened, but after what seemed like forever in perpetual slightly painful bliss, Mathias held the other two tightly to him as he came with a groaning moan. Then he let go and relaxed with a sigh as Callie muttered, “I’d love to ride your face while Cora is riding your dick.”

Mathias pushed out a soft chuckle and watched Cora make one half hearted effort to pull off of him as he breathlessly responded, “Maybe… next time?”

Perking up, Callie asked brightly, “There’ll be a next time?”

He hummed a soft agreement before hesitantly interjecting, “Just not, every time?”

“Yeah sure,” Callie said agreeably, “You’ll want some alone time with Cora.”

“And you.” Mathias told her firmly as he reached up once more to caress her cheek.

Cora gave Callie a smug, “told you so” look. To which Callie stuck her tongue out at her sister before pressing her face into his hand.

Mathias dropped his tail back into the water and closed his eyes, letting their playful banter flow over him for a while until he felt Cora successfully climb off of him. After checking to make sure his slit had closed, he tugged a smile onto his face for the harpies and gave them a playful wink before slipping back into the water.

Chapter 39

That night, Mathias went to sleep with his head up on the edge of his nest so that Tito would know that he wanted to talk with him. Otherwise Tito was unlikely to wake him when he came by.

Mathias startled awake at the soft touch to his temple. He blinked in sleepy confusion up at his brother until Tito chuckled and said, “Hey Matty, what’s up?”

Yawning, he rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand before shifting so he could lean against Tito’s tail. “Sorry I’ve been so out of it,” he mumbled as he snuggled up to his brother.

“It’s understandable,” Tito softly reassured him as he companionably rested a hand upon his shoulder.

Mathias gave a slight nod before he perked up and proudly said, “I caught a deer today!”

Intrigued, Tito inquired, “Oh yeah? How’d that go?”

A slight smile made its way onto his face as Mathias told his brother about his success with feeding himself.

Grinning, Tito ruffled Mathias’ hair as he praised him, “Awesome!”

Mathias felt content for all of a moment before he remembered the main thing that he wanted to talk with Tito about. Looking down he started fiddling with his own claws as he anxiously asked, “What do you think of the harpies?”

Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Tito took a couple of minutes to think it over before he slowly responded, “Well, I’ve only met them a couple of times… Between that and what you’ve told me? They seem to be friendly, rambunctious, and all around good people.” Then he fell silent and waited for Mathias to speak his mind.

“Well…” Mathias started, and then stopped to take a deep breath before trying again, “There are some of them that go fishing in the lagoon near the coral if you wanted to get to know them better.” Tito nodded when Mathias peeked up at him but otherwise remained silent, knowing that that could not be what Mathias was so nervous to speak about.

After another moment, Mathias spoke up in a rush, “The harpies like to challenge men to spar and then fuck in the hope of conceiving and I told them I’d find out if you’re interested.” Then he sucked his lower lip into his mouth as he waited for his brother’s reaction.

A completely nonplussed, “Huh” popped out of Tito’s mouth before he lapsed into stunned silence. After an uncomfortably long time Tito finally said to his fidgeting brother, “I’ll think about it.” With a thoughtful frown on his face, he looked towards Mathias and elaborated, “I’ll go get to know the harpies that fish and think about it.”

Mathias quickly nodded and Tito, in an attempt to ease his anxiety, wiggled down so that he was lounging on the edge of the nest and asked more questions about his day, and the merlings, and what he’d gotten up to with Darius which led to Mathias asking, “How is Darius doing?”

Tito shrugged one shoulder as he answered, “He’s acting a bit like a lost pup, but I think he’ll be alright.”

Mathias nodded thoughtfully before hesitantly asking, “Has he found anyone to hang out with?”

Tito blinked at the unfamiliar phrase as he thought it over. After a moment he smirked and let Mathias know, “One of our older cousins made the mistake of mentioning how bored he was now that his youngest had started schooling.”

Mathias pulled a small smile onto his face and let a trace of amusement color his voice as he mused, “I guess he isn’t so bored anymore?”

Chuckling, Tito shook his head and then changed the subject to something inconsequential, at least until Mathias started yawning once more. Ruffling his bigger brother’s hair, he bade him good night and left without giving Mathias a chance to say another word.

As Mathias drifted back to sleep, he felt a little less like he was taking advantage of his brother and friends, and a bit more like he could maybe take care of himself, and so maybe next time he saw them it’d be just because they wanted to see him.

~~~~~

The next morning Mathias hesitated to tend his nest. He peered at it with a thoughtful frown before looking about. Weathering storms in this nest was not easy. Add in that his merlings were getting bigger and soon it might not be feasible for him to properly buffer them all from the roiling storm swept waves. He peered out into the deeper waters as he thought out the problem. If he were to move them too deep then they’d be more vulnerable to predation, so maybe somewhere in the middle.

But, while Chloe had not directly placed them here, this is where she expected them to be and so she might not react well if he moved the nest… Even if he were to stay in isolation.

Finally he decided that placing himself at risk was better than placing his merlings at risk, which is what he’d be doing if they stayed too much longer.

Starting towards the deeper waters, Mathias whistled them to follow. As they flowed away from their own little hunts to follow after him, Mathias had another realization, most mermen would’ve already transitioned to spoken directions, but the whistles and chirps were such a useful shorthand that he did not see himself ever ceasing to use them entirely.

Thinking it over, he murmured absently, “I should really be talking to you guys more though.” He nodded to himself, having decided to start doing so immediately he calmly explained to his merlings what was going on,”Our nest is not in a very good place so today we’re going to be looking for a new nest. It might take a while though so you guys should hunt as we travel.”

Mathias let out a little chirp to reinforce what he’d just said which soothed the confused babbling that had arisen around him. Then to further reinforce it he struck and lifted a stray frogfish that was in his path. As he bemusedly examined the colorful lumpy fish to make sure that it wasn’t sick to be so bright in such drab surroundings, his fry crowded close to beg for a bite.

Once he had decided it was safe, he tore off a small mouthful for each fry before popping the rest into his mouth and resuming his journey. As they traveled he sampled the seaweeds, and examined everything for storm damages, narrating every action and explaining what every item was as they went. In a way he was simply resuming his habit from before he fell into his funk, if not actively expanding upon it.

Eventually he found a zone with minimal storm damage. He looked nervously towards how close the dropoff with the healthy coral growth was. While at first he had found the dead coral to be quite desolate, he had eventually come to realize, which the day's exploration had only reinforced for him, that it was an excellent place for dispersed populations of small fish in addition to the hoards of small crabs and seaweed that seemed to be everywhere. It still wasn’t a very robust environment, although maybe he could help it along as it was surely the merfolks’ fault, but it was safer from larger predators than the healthier coral that he could see not too far off.

Mathias gave himself a small shake and pulled a smile onto his face as he explained to his youngsters what he was about to do. They didn’t seem to pay very close attention, but that didn’t matter overly much.

With a small thoughtful hum he looked over the distracted merlings before he settled on the serious task of finding them a new nest. It took a while, since he was going slowly to allow the merlings to hunt and enjoy their exploration, but eventually he found an abandoned nest that was a decent distance away from the dropoff, and other healthier coral, and seemed sufficiently sheltered from storm tossed waves, It even had a more than abundant garden growing within it.

He had almost overlooked it entirely, so dense was the vegetation, until Curious had completely disappeared into it. After he hurriedly yanked hir back out, he carefully looked it over. It would not need much repairing and there didn’t seem to be anything nasty lurking amongst the weeds, but it was already getting late, and he wanted to tell Tito about the move before he completed it.

After finding a few landmarks that might help Tito find the place in the dark, he harvested some of the abundant weeds to plant in their garden for the night and led his merlings back home.

~~~~~

Once again Mathias slept propped up so that Tito would know he wanted to talk and once again he was awoken by a soft touch to his temple.

As Mathias blinked the sleep out of his eyes, Tito grinned and teased him, “Do you enjoy seeing my face that much?”

Tugging a smile onto his face, Mathias couldn’t help but admit, “Yours is the friendliest face in this ocean.” Realizing that he’d gotten far too honest for his own comfort he turned his eyes to his sleeping merlings as Tito hummed absently.

Eventually he relaxed against his brother’s tail and let out a small confused sigh as Tito soothingly pet the side of his head. After a few more minutes, Mathias said, “I’ll be moving nests tomorrow.”

Smiling once more, Tito excitedly asked, “Where to?”

Mathias gestured in the direction of the nest he’d found and explained, “It’s that way, down in a dip in the ground. There’s a gray coral formation between it and the dropoff that is shaped like a hand with its thumb pointing towards the nest.”

Tito hummed thoughtfully before responding, “Well it won’t be as easy to find as that,” he gestured to the enormous boulder that Mathias used to meet the harpies on before continuing, “But I think I can manage it.”

Nodding, Mathias’ brow furrowed as he gazed towards the boulder. After a moment Tito tilted his head and encouragingly asked, “What’s on your mind?”

Letting out a deep sigh, Mathias hoarsely whispered, “What’ll Chloe do? She doesn’t often seek me out, instead she waits here for me…”

Frowning, Tito thought about it before reluctantly offering, “I suppose… you could always stop by here at the end of the day before heading to bed.”

“It’s not ideal,” Mathias murmured as he hunched his shoulders defensively and leaned into his brother.

“It’s not,” Tito agreed and then thought for a few minutes before pointing out, “You could always wait and see if she still has a connection to them and therefore can follow you to the new nest.”

Immediately, Mathias shook his head and replied, “She hasn’t harmed them, so they won’t have rejected her.”

Tito gazed skeptically at Mathias before he sarcastically spat out, “She’s beaten and raped their father repeatedly. Traumatizing their favorite person and terrorizing them in the process. But yeah, sure, she hasn’t harmed them.”

Mathias flinched and drew in a ragged breath as he sorrowfully said, “They were too used to it even by the time they hatched to reject her over that.”

Tito huffed and scowled off into the distance until a sleepy Glutton lifted hir uncle’s hand to look for a meal. His expression swiftly softened as he guided the young merling to where he’d left the eel he’d brought them that night. The two adults watched as the other youngsters slowly awoke and joined their noticeably larger sibling in hir late night snack.

With a sigh Tito squeezed Mathias’ shoulder and gave him a soft, “Sorry.” Mathias nodded an acknowledgement as he silently stewed in his own misery.

Sighing again, Tito said something seemingly unrelated, “Juno is quite brave.”

Startled, Mathias glanced up at him and let out a confused, “Huh?”

Tito waved his hand vaguely about as he said, “Think about it, if she accidentally kills you, or pushes the merlings too far and you escape, or even if she simply decides you’re too much trouble, who do you think her next target will be?”

Blanching, Mathias let out an anguished cry of, “But, but, why? Why us?”

Tito grimaced and rubbed soothing circles on his brother’s back as he explained, “Those in our age group that did not follow her followed us. And unlike her, we never sought it.”

Trembling, Mathias stammered out, “Th-then you’re in the most danger.”

Tito firmly shook his head before soothingly reminding him, “Aside from the fact that most believe you were the brains behind most of my schemes… She has repeatedly shown great disdain for my small stature, and as everyone knows I have no interest in raising merlings. So she would assume that I would abandon the eggs at the first opportunity.”

Mathias sucked his lower lip into his mouth and gazed at the merlings who were curling back up against his side to go to sleep. He could no longer imagine a world without them but he couldn’t help but fretfully ask, “Do you think I should have…”

Tito did not make his brother finish the question before he was once again firmly shaking his head and telling him affectionately, “It was your decision, you should own it and be proud of it.”

Mathias nodded slowly before looking wide-eyed up at his brother and asking worriedly, “What about others, what do they think?”

Without any hesitation Tito said, “It doesn’t matter what they think.” But when Mathias’ reaction was to merely pout and keep staring at him, Tito sighed, his shoulders slumping as he admitted, “No one questions whether or not you should have abandoned them, instead there are several people who insist that since you did not then deep down you must want this and so Chloe is doing nothing wrong.”

Mathias stared at him in aghast incredulity, unable to articulate how very wrong that whole thought process was.

After a moment Tito drew in a ragged breath and leaned down to hug Mathias tightly. As he did so he whispered fiercely to his brother, “When you get an opportunity to flee, you take it, don’t look back just get yourself and your merlings somewhere safe. Darius and I can help Linus move his eggs if we have to, we’ll be fine.”

With a strangled sob, Mathias clung to his brother for a while. Finally he let go and timidly asked, “Can you stay until I fall asleep?”

Tito flashed him a smile and brushed the hair out of Mathias’ face as he said with mostly genuine cheer, “Of course.”

Forcing a return smile upon his face, Mathias wiggled down into a comfortable position and drifted off to the soothing sound of his brother’s humming.

Chapter 40

A few days later Mathias was nursing some freshly broken ribs. Chloe had been at the old nest when he’d stopped by the night before. She had not seemed to notice that it was abandoned, but he had not been able to hide his revulsion this time when she finished with him.

He gave his ribs one last exploratory prod as he tried to decide how far he could take his merlings. He could easily make it to the dropoff from their new nest, but he would not be able to move as swiftly, and that was where they were most likely to encounter danger. Whereas everything else seemed too far away.

He sighed and curled his left arm protectively over his broken ribs. He had probably pushed himself too hard returning the night before, but he couldn’t stand staying there a second longer than he had to.

He eyed his nest critically for a moment before looking at his expectantly waiting merlings. They weren’t eating as much at night as they used to, and he’d been preventing them from hunting in the immediate area. He could safely neglect the nest for a day or two, and there should be enough prey in the area to keep them satisfied for at least one morning.

As he made his decision he hoped he would not later need that buffer even more than he currently did. He gave his merlings a fragile smile and rasped softly out, “We’ll be staying here for the morning at least, so go ahead and hunt.” Then he gave them a little chirp to get them moving.

The group cocked their heads at him almost in unison and then swam quietly out of the nest to go hunting. With a soft sigh Mathias followed after.

~~~~~

Mathias was once again amazed at the harpies' eyesight as they dropped some large chunks of pork for them around midmorning. He hadn’t even seen a shadow through the water so his only sure clue that they’d been here was the sinking meat.

Thanks to the extra meat Mathias and his merlings stayed in the same area until Darius showed up around midafternoon.

“Finally found you guys!” Darius called out happily as he ruffled his nearest nibbling’s short hair. Then he got distracted with greeting and occasionally praising the merlings before he could reach Mathias’ side.

Darius glanced at where Mathias was pressing his arm into his side with a frown and gently asked, “Do you need to take a nap?”

A smile briefly tried to tug at his lips as Mathias shook his head and said, “No, but can you go to the drop off with us?” Darius was becoming about as quick at detecting and dealing with danger as Mathias was, so if he tagged along it should be relatively safe.

Darius puffed up with pride as he brightly responded, “Sure thing! But first, lemme see your new nest?”

Mathias pulled out an appropriate chuckle and turned to show off his new home. As Darius looked over the sculpted coral, Mathias helpfully pointed out the repairs he’d made and explained how he’d done it.

Once Darius’ curiosity was sated, they called over the merlings and headed to the dropoff. After Darius cleared out a couple of small sharks and a large moray, which he happily shared with his brother and niblings, the brothers then settled in to keep an eye on the youngsters as they hunted and played. Well, mostly played for a few short hours.

Darius cast a worried glance at his obviously worn out brother and hesitantly asked, “Are you sure you don’t need a nap?”

Mathias stubbornly shook his head as he answered, “I’ll be fine.”

Darius nodded slowly, clearly not entirely believing him, but he let it go and filled Mathias in on the latest gossip.

It didn’t take him long to notice how unusually distracted Mathias was though, and so with a shoulder nudge Darius grumpily asked, “Okay, what’s wrong? And don’t you dare tell me, ‘nothing’.” Then he crossed his arms and turned a scowl onto the other merman as if he fully expected him to try that anyway.

Mathias rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Why didn’t you demand answers when I was being all distracted before.”

Darius narrowed his eyes at his brother before flicking him lightly on the forehead. Once Mathias had turned his indignant eyes upon him Darius bluntly said, “Before, you were apathetic and withdrawn. There was no reaching you!” He sighed and gentled his voice to say, “All I could do was be there and help with your offspring.” He watched Mathias for a moment but when he said nothing, Darius grumpily prodded him with, “Now however, something is eating you from the inside. So spit out whatever is worrying you and maybe I can help.”

Mathias’ only response was to sigh and look over his merlings with a furrowed brow. After waiting for a few minutes, Darius testily snapped, “I’m not as stupid as I act!”

The briefest flicker of a smile graced Mathias’ face as he dryly responded to that, “No, of course you're not, it’d be pretty hard to be that stupid.”

“Flipping right it would be.” Darius snorted out with a certain perverse pride before he fell silent once more and tried to be patient. This wasn’t one of Darius’ strong suits.

Just as Darius looked like he might start gnawing on Mathias if he continued his silence, Mathias gestured over himself and out at their surroundings as he said in a hoarse agonized whisper, “This isn’t normal.”

Darius relaxed a fraction as he grumbled in harsh agreement, “It isn’t healthy either.”

Mathias sighed and stared broodingly at his merlings as he took a moment to gather himself before he asked, “But how do I teach them what is normal and healthy?”

Darius leaned companionably into Mathias as he hummed thoughtfully, until suddenly he straightened back up and said brightly, “Oh! You could tell them stories about mom and dad. Especially ones where mom gets angry at dad.”

Mathias gave his brother a baffled look and slowly said, “But, mom never got mad at dad.”

Snickering, Darius rolled his eyes and said, “Okay, I’ll tell them stories about mom and dad.”

Dragging another smile upon his face, Mathias nodded his agreement.

Darius shook his head with a chuckle and murmured as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, “Mom never got mad at dad.” Then he flashed his bemused brother a smile and returned to telling him about everything that had happened since his last visit.

~~~~~

They were a little late getting back, but Darius was determined to tell his story before he left. So Mathias quickly got himself and his merlings settled down into their nest so that he could begin.

Mathias had always been distracted with talking with Linus while Darius told stories before, and Darius had spent more time than usual catching up with him last time he’d come and so had not told any stories. He wanted to find out how Darius viewed these events from their childhood though, so he thoughtfully gave him his full attention.

Darius sat on the rim of the nest to look his audience over before he began, “So, I told you about the time we snuck our younger siblings out to play when they were really too young for that. Now, I’m going to tell you about a time when grandma got really angry with grandpa instead of your daddy and uncles.”

Mathias startled slightly as his merlings giggled at the exaggerated faces their uncle made while talking. From his memory of that event his mother had been rather calm when she’d found them, and had explained how dangerous and thoughtless what they’d done was without showing any signs of anger and it had been their father’s disappointment that had really stung… but Darius had been the first among them to show any signs of remorse and guilt so maybe Darius had been the only one to see those signs.

Darius' goofy grin morphed into a grim and somber mask as he got into his tale, “It was a particularly dark night, and no one could sleep because your grandpa had not returned yet. He had gone hunting alone because the brother he usually hunted with was grieving and not feeling up to it. But even hunting alone, he should have been back already.”

“Your grandmother’s tail twitched restlessly as she popped up and down straining towards any sound in the hopes that it would be her delayed mate. Occasionally the light would glint just right that I could see her right cheek twitching in that way it did when she was particularly upset. No doubt the only thing actually keeping her in place was the fact that our younger siblings were still calm, which meant that your grandpa was at least still alive.”

Darius’ face shifted to a more hopeful expression as he continued, “But eventually he did show up, and your grandma shot away from our side to grab him in a fierce hug before examining every inch of him. Confused, he hugged her back and twisted about to watch her examination as he hesitantly asked, ‘Is something wrong?’”

Then all of a sudden Darius looked extremely angry, causing the merlings to shrink back for a moment before they seemed to remember that this was part of his storytelling process. Darius’ eyes drifted from face to face until they had all relaxed again and he somberly continued, “She glared at him, her jaw subtly clenching before she hissed out in an aggrieved whisper, ‘Where have you been?’”

Mathias was quite fascinated as Darius’ face went rapidly through expressions right around to embarrassed, and he took a brief moment to wonder if this was a skill that the bards the harpies had told him of possessed, before getting sucked back into the story once more, “Carefully your grandfather caressed her cheek as he sheepishly explained, ‘I got something for Haris to eat too, and then spent some time trying to help him and his mate feel better.’”

Darius looked lost and uncertain as he continued, “Your grandma’s face softened, she knew that she could never stop your grandpa from helping those he loved, nor do I think she would ever want to. But she had been scared, and what usually follows fear is anger.”

Darius paused to pull out a truly exaggerated pout, and once the merlings giggles had died down he continued, “Her jaw clenched briefly in anger, then she drew in a breath through her nose and let the anger out with it. Because as she’d so often told me, you don’t take out your anger on your loved ones, you save it for your prey and your enemies. Then she pouted at your grandpa, much in the same way your dad pouts whenever he’s trying to get something.” Mathias couldn’t help but chuckle here, having always fallen asleep the second his father got back he’d never actually seen his mother pout, but it was amusing to think that he had this in common with her. Darius ignored him as he continued to direct his attention to the merlings, “So pouting she said, ‘You should have warned me before you left.’”

Then Darius pulled on a guilt riddled expression as he said, “He laid a gentle kiss upon her forehead and wrapped himself reassuringly around her as he guiltily said, ‘I’m sorry dearheart, I didn’t think of it until after I’d eaten and I thought it’d be quicker to bring him food and then come back.’”

Darius’ face quickly turned into a grumpy scowl and not a single merling so much as flinched this time, “Your grandma let out a soft huff before wrapping her arms around him as she grumpily pointed out, ‘You should have known that they would need someone to talk with as well.’ Your grandfather simply nodded his sheepish agreement and so she softened in his arms as she gently pleaded, ‘Just, stop through and let me know next time you want to help someone.’”

Darius got a thoughtful look on his face as he finished his tale, “With traces of guilt still lacing his voice, your grandpa let out a relieved and agreeable, ‘Of course.’ They stayed like that for a while longer, both of them seeking and receiving comfort from the other.”

Darius quickly resumed his goofy grin as he looked to his brother who was idly petting the sleepy merlings while staring off into space. Then he furrowed his brows worriedly and tilted his head as he softly asked Mathias, “What’s wrong?”

Mathias turned a sad smile onto him as he hoarsely said, “I always wanted a relationship like mom and dad’s.”

A smile blossomed back onto Darius’ face as he cheerfully pointed out, “Rommy’s the only one that’s managed that. But we have centuries. We’ll get there eventually.”

Mathias sucked his lower lip into his mouth to keep it from trembling as he simply shrugged in response.

Darius leaned in to press his forehead to Mathias’ as he softly said, “Sorry I’m not sneaky enough to come around more like Tito can.”

Mathias briefly clasped the back of his brother's neck as he responded, “Thank you for being around when you can, don’t get in trouble on my account.”

As Darius pulled back, Mathias smiled bravely and said, “Thanks for the story, I’ll be sure to repeat it.”

Darius grinned at him, puffing up his chest proudly as he declared, “I enjoy telling stories.”

As he continued to hesitate, Mathias forced out a cheerful chuckle and waved him off saying, “Go on back and find out what excuse Tito has for you coming back so late.”

Darius nodded dubiously and gave Mathias a hug before he swam away to the sound of Mathias singing his youngsters to sleep.

Chapter 41

Nesting season passed without incident, and no adult sharks had swum the river in a couple of weeks. Mathias had his merlings playing in the sandy shallows as they waited for Cora to show up. Once she gave them a fly by they’d be going upriver to explore the swamp that she and Callie had told him so much about.

Mathias spotted a shadow circling overhead and popped his head out of the water to take a closer look. A smile flickered onto his face as Cora swooped low briefly, before taking off in the direction of the river. With a laugh and a wave he sank back into the water to follow with his youngsters.

With Cora flying above to scout for danger, Mathias had only to watch where she couldn’t see, so they made much better time through the water and up the river. Especially when the merlings all hitched a ride on his back.

It didn’t take as long as he expected before the river widened and slowed down to the point that he could hardly tell that it was flowing anymore. He held still, looking around at the massive trees that were growing amongst the vegetation that he had gotten used to finding along the river.

Slowly he moved to the side, the water was also much shallower here, the harpies could if they’d wanted to wade through it without too much difficulty. Cora had told him that she wouldn’t unless she saw something dangerous. So it would just be him and the merlings for the day.

There was no way that Cora could keep as good of an eye on them amongst these trees and weeds, so Mathias moved cautiously amongst them. He could see why the sharks birthed their pups here. There was plenty of prey, and hiding places, and the water was too shallow and crowded to make a good home or hunting ground for larger creatures.

Mathias was a merman however, and so could do things that most predators his size could not. He reached almost casually in amongst a tangle of roots and pulled out a shark pup by the gills as he swam by. He waited until he’d found a clearish area to settle down in before he dispatched the small thing, no bigger than Glutton’s head.

His merlings quickly swarmed round and begged for a bite. Mathias gave them a brief smile and explained, “It’s too small to share, you should go get your own.” Then he popped it into his mouth and chewed as they pouted adorably at him.

Swallowing, Mathias let out a big exaggerated yawn and laid his head down as he pretended to take a nap.

They babbled among themselves for a moment, and Sleepless even tried pushing on his shoulder a few times before they decided to explore the area.

Because of the still water Mathias only had to occasionally crack his eyes open to see what they were doing when they darted behind some roots or other barrier. The rest of the time he could hear and feel what they were doing quite clearly, and so did not need to bother.

He had the merlings so convinced that he was asleep that when Quick called out, “Dad!” and he jerked up and around to stare at hir all of the other merlings startled in place.

Quick however proudly presented the catfish half hir size that ze and Rambunctious had taken down, to Mathias and repeated in hir soft little baby voice, “Dad!”

What was very likely the first completely genuine smile to grace his face in far too long blossomed from Mathias’ lips as he moved over to caress Quick’s head and asked in an awestruck voice, “Did you just call me dad?”

“Dad!” Quick repeated again while trying to thrust the unwieldy fish, with Rambunctious’ help, towards Mathias.

Mathias chuckled and examined the fish before handing it back and ruffling the pair’s hair as he praised, “Good job getting the catfish.”

He left them cooing happily as they dug into their meal and moved back to his spot with a big enough smile on his face to hurt a little, but he couldn’t even make himself want to stop. Add in that soon the water was ringing with the sound of various merlings calling out some variation on ad or da and he also couldn’t stop his head from whipping around with each new iteration. When Quick and Rambunctious swam over to shove their half eaten catfish into his laughing mouth, was when he realized that he had been laughing nearly the entire time.

He sealed his lips around the snack and pulled the pair in for a hug as he chewed. Soon he was swarmed by other merlings wanting hugs, and to feed him, so he happily rolled onto his back. Eventually everyone settled down into a pile on his chest and belly and he just laid there grinning up at the sky. He could see Cora’s shadow flitting by from time to time, and he couldn’t wait to tell her all about it, but he also didn’t want to break the moment.

And so, he just basked in it until the merlings got restless. Mathias then called out, “C’mon gang, let’s get going.” Rolling over, he whistled them onto his back and swam off to find a shallow meander. Amongst other things, the day was getting late.

Coming upon the perfect meander, Mathias playfully shook his merlings off before going over to sit near the bank.

By the time he got there, Cora was already hopping into the water. Grinning still, he sat up beside her and pulled her into a clavicle nuzzling hug.

Chuckling, she hugged his neck and kissed the top of his head before cheerfully asking, “What’s up?”

Mathias released her and sat back to eye the merlings swarming about them. Spotting Quick, he scooped her carefully up, because the merlings still occasionally had trouble holding themselves up outside of the water, and settled hir against his shoulder as he cooed happily to hir, “Can you say it again?”

Quick blinked up at Mathias and then looked over at Cora. Ze gave Cora a big toothy grin and reached for her while calling out, “Ra!”

Grinning back, Cora leaned forward to press her forehead to the little one’s as she teasingly asked, “Oh are you speaking now?”

Snorting, Mathias said in playful disgruntlement, “Earlier ze was saying, ‘dad’.”

He couldn’t help smiling though as the other nine popped their heads up out of the water to demand Cora’s attention as well. As things calmed down he released Quick back to hir siblings.

Grinning at him, Cora asked, “Is that what all of that commotion was about?”

Feeling shy all of a sudden, Mathias looked up at Cora through his lashes as he gave her a sheepish, “Yeah.”

Cora chirped out happily, “Soon they’ll be speaking in sentences.”

“Yeah,” Mathias said thoughtfully, a brief frown tugging at his lips before he could banish the surge of unease that thought brought.

Obliviously, Cora continued, “Clara’s seven won’t start speaking for several more months at least.”

Perking back up, Mathias eagerly asked, “What are they like right now?”

Cora excitedly launched into talking about her nieces, “Well they’re still adorable balls of white fluff, but sometimes when the light hits them just right I could swear that there’s a bit of green to them.”

Mathias chuckled and nodded as he asked, “Have they all managed to sit up yet?”

Cora cackled gleefully informing him, “Yep! Soon they’ll start scooting around I’m sure. And then the flock's hands will really be full trying to keep them in their nest house. Oh… it’s so nice to have babies around again!” Mathias smiled wistfully, unable to keep from longing to see them.

Cora nudged him playfully as she conspiritually whispered, “I think if Clara weren’t so milk heavy right now, she might wanna take a break and get a little physical relief with you.”

Blushing, he let out a surprised laugh at that and turned the conversation over to elaborating on what Cora had viewed from above.

All too soon, it was time to part again. After exchanging a tender kiss and a hug Mathias slipped back into the water as Cora took to the skies.

As he swam, he could not help but turn over the thought that they would be speaking properly all too soon, and that in itself would bring him and his merlings great danger.

After he had gotten everyone settled into the nest he looked them over melancholically, he did not want to have this conversation with them, no parent should ever have to tell their children something like this, but it was the life he was living.

Letting out a tremendous sigh, he spoke softly and sadly as he laid out their fragile reality, “Your mother, she doesn’t like it when people do things other than the way she wants them done, and a lot of the things we do to survive… are not how she would want them done. You should never lie to her, that would be more dangerous than over sharing… But, it would also be best if you never volunteer where we go, what we do, who we talk with, and what we talk about… And when she does directly ask, because she very well might, tell her the bare minimum to answer her questions.”

He watched his attentive merlings for a moment. There was no way they could fully understand yet, but if he kept repeating it then hopefully by the time that she bothered to pay attention to what they had to say, they would understand, and heed his warning. He dispiritedly sighed again, hating having to warn his children against their mother.

He closed his eyes and pulled a trembling smile upon his face as he tried to recapture the day’s joy before he told his merlings a bedtime story.

Chapter 42

Time passed far faster than Mathias liked, and before he knew it his merlings were speaking in short, though often incomplete sentences. Soon after, they started getting restless at night and had a hard time settling down to sleep as they stared in the direction of the kelp forest that they had never been to.

Frowning, Mathias stared off towards the kelp forest himself and with a shudder of fear he realized that it had been eighteen months since that night, and if he didn’t soon take them to their mother himself they would seek her out on their own.

He looked brokenheartedly at his merlings and tried to sooth them to sleep as he thought, ‘Not tonight, I can’t. I’ll try to brace myself for it tomorrow, but not tonight.’

Mathias did not get much rest himself, he worried about them trying to sneak off, and his nightmares hit him with a renewed ferocity. So he easily startled awake before Tito had even finished setting their snack of the night into the nest.

Tito blinked at Mathias, caught completely off guard for once.

“Hey Tito,” Mathias mumbled groggily as he rubbed his eyes, before giving his brother a very nearly broken smile as he choked out, “I’ll miss this.”

Tito dropped the fish and pulled Mathias into a comforting hug. Rubbing his back, he mumbled worriedly, “Hey hey, what’s wrong?”

Mathias clung to his brother, shuddering and whimpering for a while before he was able to spit out, “They need to sleep near their mother.”

Tito’s face visibly fell and he hugged Mathias tighter as he whispered a sympathetic, “Oh barnacles! I’m sorry. I wish…” he trailed off and sighed instead of finishing his thought.

After holding Mathias for a while, Tito patted his back and asked, “So what is your plan?”

Mathias twisted around, while still holding onto his brother and looked at his merlings, who had, without either of them paying attention, swarmed over the dropped fish. He didn’t answer at first, just watched his youngsters broodingly until they snuggled back up to him. Then he sighed and said, “I’ll let the harpies know tomorrow, and then… I guess I’ll find somewhere near her to sleep tomorrow night.”

He shuddered and whimpered at the thought, fighting the urge to let out a sharp, keening cry as he buried his face into his brother’s hair.

Tito for the first time, slipped into the now very crowded nest with Mathias, and held him as he fell asleep, and continued to hold him until he woke up again the next morning.

When Mathias awoke with his brother’s steady heartbeat under his ear, he at first thought that perhaps the last year and a half had been one extremely long nightmare. Upon opening his eyes to see his merlings curiously watching the pair of them, he was simultaneously crushed and relieved that it had not been.

He let out a soft whimper of confusion and pain and then Tito’s hand clumsily patted the side of his head as he half asleep mumbled, “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay.”

Drawing in a deep shuddering breath, Mathias pulled himself upright before shaking his brother into groggy wakefulness. As Tito blinked the sleep out of his eyes Mathias mournfully told him, “You should get back.”

Yawning, Tito stretched and searched Mathias’ face before offering, “Do you want me to stay with you.”

Mathias firmly shook his head and said, “Don’t get in trouble on my account.”

Grinning cheekily, Tito waved it off with, “They’d have to catch me first,” but at Mathias’ stubborn pout he relented and gave his brother a hug and some parting words. “Do try and enjoy yourself somewhat today.”

Returning the hug, Mathias gave him an uncertain, “I’ll try,” and then watched the smaller merman swim away before turning to take the merlings away from the nest for the final time.

~~~~~

After some thought, Mathias headed up the river to catch a deer. He did not know how his actions would be curtailed in the future so he might as well face it with a full belly. When he finished with that, he settled onto the bed of the deep meander and nervously spun his hair into thread while he waited for someone to show up.

By the time a harpy showed up, Mathias was finishing a fourth thread for his left hand, and had three more on his right. He noticed her swooping down to the bank and hurriedly wrapped and tied the string to his wrist before going over to join her.

He propped his arms on the bank and looked up at Alula as he sucked on his lower lip.

Alula’s eyes caught on his wrists and she remarked with a small smirk, “Nice bracelets.”

Mathias forced a trembling smile onto his face and let out a shaky, “Thanks.”

Alula studied his face for a moment before lowering herself until she was almost laying in the grass to coaxingly ask, “What’s up Mathias?”

With a deep sigh, Mathias tried to force back the panic that had been overwhelming him since the night before and so what came out was a rather gloomy rasp, “I need to move back to the kelp forest. And I don’t know where I’ll be allowed to go afterwards.” Then he slumped down, and rested his forehead on his arms.

Comfortingly petting the top of his head, the harpy thought for a moment before she spoke, “Want me to gather everyone to come hang out with you for a bit?”

“Could you?” Mathias peeked up and asked with a bit of forlorn hope.

“Of course,” she responded confidently before getting a mischievous glint in her eye and teasing him with, “Just meet us three meanders down.”

Mathias choked out a laugh and nodded before slipping back into the water.

~~~~~

Mathias didn’t have long to wait before the four harpies were joining him, and soon after he pulled himself upright to join the wading harpies and was enfolded into a set of comforting boobs.

He let out a sigh, nuzzling into Cora’s chest as he let her soothing scent wash over him. In the background he could hear Alula and Callie holding a whispered conversation and in front of him he could feel Cora drawing in a breath to speak.

There was nothing she could say that would help though, so he leaned back and pulled her down into a deep kiss. All he wanted at the moment was the comforting presence of his friends.

Surprisingly, it was Helen who moved over first and leaned into his side, but it didn’t take long for Callie and Alula to join them and lean against his other side and back. Releasing Cora’s lips, Mathias relaxed a tiny bit as he closed his eyes and leaned his ear against her chest, content for the moment to simply soak up the silent comfort they were offering. Eventually the merlings interrupted the comfort cuddles to beg for sweets from Helen.

Helen chuckled as the group hug broke up and gave the merlings and Mathias some candy. After the little ones rubbed affectionately against her and dispersed to socialize with the other harpies Helen nodded to Mathias’ wrists and said, “Good idea, did you tie them with slip knots?”

Lifting his left arm, he peered at his wrist in bafflement as he mumbled around the candy, “Umm, no?”

Helen pulled his hand over and rested it on her extended wing as she retied the knots for him, explaining as she did so, “With slip knots you’ll be able to take them off in a hurry, and then you’ll have string ready faster when you need it. Like the sailors I told you about.”

Blushing, Mathias admitted in a sheepish mumble, “I didn’t even think of that.”

Smiling, Helen told him reassuringly as she gestured for him to switch hands, “Neither did I till I saw them, but it’s still a good idea.”

The other three had been having a whispered conversation in the background which Mathias was politely ignoring until Cora loudly said, “He won’t mind.”

Curiously, he looked over with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

Looking highly flustered and with a blush slowly blossoming upon her cheeks, Alula muttered, “This is stupid.”

Even more curious now, Mathias hurriedly crunched and swallowed his candy. He licked his lips before starting to ask, “Wha…” before he could finish speaking however, Alula stepped forward and pressed her lips to his.

Snickering, Helen released his wrist. Newly freed, Mathias cupped Alula’s cheek with one hand while he caressed her neck with the other.

Looking if anything even more flustered, Alula pulled back a little and Mathias hurried to reassure her, “I don’t mind,” before pulling her back into the kiss with his sweetened tongue sliding into her mouth to tangle with hers.

She relaxed into him for a bit with her hands playing over his neck and shoulders, before pushing herself firmly off of him and muttering, “But I’ve helped patch you up so many times.”

“And you were very attractive doing so,” he easily agreed and lifted her hand to drag his tongue over the soft flesh between her digits.

“Ah fuck!” Alula muttered with a shudder as she gave Helen a sideways uncertain look.

Helen snorted out a laugh and shook her head. She turned to pay attention to the merlings as she said, “Don’t look at me, far as I’m concerned he’s more a fellow student than your patient. You can get up to all kinds of fun with a fellow student.”

Looking back to Mathias who waggled his eyebrows at her, she blushed even brighter and shyly asked, “Do you wanna go ashore?”

Placing a kiss upon her palm, Mathias released her hand and eagerly said, “Yes!” before dropping back into the water.

Chapter 43

Mathias clambered onto land and gave the tree that his tail had previously grasped a brief look, before settling down to watch Alula nervously move towards him.

Now that she had shown more interest than shy glances and occasional blushes, Mathias allowed his eyes to roam eagerly from her dark brown eyes down to her lowest pair of teats.

“Like what you see?” she mumbled, obviously flustered.

A smile tried to tug at his lips as Mathias hummed out an, “Mmhmm.”

As she drew up to him, he brushed a thumb along her reddened cheek and pulled her closer. Mathias found it adorable for the usually rather calm and collected harpy to be so red cheeked and embarrassed.

“I don’t get battle lust,” she blurted out.

Mathias made a curious noise and kissed her cheek, prompting her to elaborate, “Um, how the other harpies get turned on by pain and violence.”

“I don’t either,” he responded before kissing her chin and asking curiously, “Are you a virgin?”

“No,” she said stiffly before leaning into Mathias as he kissed down her neck.

“It’s okay if you are,” he told her equitably and rubbed his tongue into the hollow of her throat.

“Oh goddess,” she mumbled, and tangled her hands into Mathias’ hair as she tilted her head back.

When he moved to suck on her left collarbones, she huskily admitted, “I’ve just never been with a guy before.”

“Neither have I,” he cheekily mumbled as he moved to sucking on her other set of collarbones.

Laughing shakily, she trailed her hands down his neck and asked, “Are you where Clara got that hand licking trick from?”

Mathias looked up at her in surprise, then with a smirk hovering on his lips he answered, “She put her hand over an aroused merman’s mouth.”

At that, almost shyly, Alula pressed her lips to his once more. Mathias made a soft sound of pleasure as he invitingly parted his lips for her. With her tongue caressing the roof of his mouth, Mathias let out a soft muffled moan and yanked her in to press her chest to his own. His hands gently raked through the mottled brown feathers on her back as she rubbed their chests together.

Eventually Mathias impatiently tugged at her hips, trying to get her to grind against his lower belly. Once she started doing so, he shuddered and voiced his appreciation and encouraged her to explore by guiding her hands down from his shoulders to his chest.

Alula broke the kiss to nibble along his jaw line as she trailed her hands in feather-light caresses over his chest. Mathias hoarsely whispered, “Touch me like you mean it,” as he carefully teased his claws up and down her sides.

She pressed her little hands more firmly into his skin and traced the contours of his chest and neck as Mathias caught her lips once more.

His hands moved forward to play with her nipples, eliciting soft little murmurs of pleasure from them both.

Alula moved down and sucked one of Mathias’ nipples into her mouth while her smoothly scaled thumb pad moved around the other one. Mathias squeaked and twitched, but when Alula gave him an uncertain look he merely gave her an encouraging smile and continued playing with her nipples as he enjoyed the unusual sensation of her playing with his.

Once she started to really gyrate upon him, Mathias pulled her closer to feel her nipples rub against his skin and recaptured her lips while he reached back to tease at her damp slit. Sucking upon her lower lip, he watched her face lustily as he dragged her juices over her little clit and drove her to a fevered pitch.

Somehow, Mathias didn’t think that Alula would enjoy him getting stuck inside her quite as much as the others did, and he did not think he would enjoy her panic if she were to do so. So once her passage softened sufficiently, he pulled her down onto his throbbing shaft as his tail wrapped about the tree.

As he slid in, gasping in pleasure, Mathias held her tightly and buried his face into the crook of her neck until she started to bounce, pressing close enough that her clit rubbed against his lower belly and scales. He loosened his hold slightly to allow her to move, and rained kisses along her neck while she moaned loudly into his ear.

All too soon, he was holding her tight once more as her wings flapped erratically. Once she calmed down again, he grabbed her hips and urged her back into rapid motion as he sought his own release. They achieved his goal quickly, as Mathias held Alula to his lap with their lips tangled together.

They leaned against each other to catch their breath and then Alula, awkward and flustered once more, climbed off of him to give him space to reenter the water.

Mathias caught her cheek before she could move very far and pulled her close for a gentle kiss to her other cheek and to murmur into her ear, “Thank you.”

As he let the harpy go they exchanged brief wishful smiles before Mathias made his way back into the water with Alula following after.

The rest of the day passed without much of note aside from when at least an hour apart from each other, just as he seemed to start getting lost in his thoughts, Cora and Callie took turns dragging him back onto land to have their way with him. In between, Helen left and returned with a variety of hand pastries.

Eventually the hour grew late enough that the harpies had to head home, and Mathias had to take the merlings to seek their rest.

When Mathias’ course altered from the norm the merlings cautiously moved closer while giving him oddly excited queries. Mathias tried to drag a smile onto his face, but all that he managed was a painful twitching quiver. So instead, he took a deep breath and tremblingly explained to the overlapping and therefore unintelligible questions, “We’re going to the kelp forest, where all the other merfolk in our pod who aren’t nest bound sleep.”

“Uncle Dare?” the bright eyed, Quick asked when the others fell into a thoughtful silence.

“Yes,” Mathias agreed with a fractured chuckle which quickly faded as he went on with, “And Uncle Tito, but not Uncle Linus. But Your Grandma, and your Mother will be there too, as well as many aunts, uncles and cousins that you’ve never met.”

At the mention of their mother, the whole lot of them fearfully shrunk against him. And he had to wonder, ‘How can they be so scared of her and not have rejected her yet?’ So he spoke up to nervously ask, “Where is your mother?” After a group wide flinch, they unerringly pointed in the same direction, which wasn’t quite where they were heading, but was still pretty close.

With a sigh, he stared morosely in the direction that they had pointed before forcing himself to brighten up and say as cheerfully as he could, “C’mon guys, hang onto me and maybe we can get there early enough to socialize before bed.”

They stared at him dubiously as they slowly swam along with him, with only Shadow and Follows climbing onto his back. Mathias forced his face into a more genuine looking smile as he coaxed the rest aboard, “It’ll probably be the funnest part of our night.”

He could have simply told them to hang on, and they would’ve, but as much as he was looking forward to seeing his family again, even more so he didn’t want to go back to the kelp forest.

His words prompted Curious to move onto his back though, and the others to slowly follow suit with Rambunctious being the last to wiggle into place and hold on. Sighing in resignation, Mathias sped up towards what felt like his certain doom.

As they approached the looming kelp, Mathias shuddered with dread. The ominous feeling that suffused his dreams of the place descended upon him all at once. His merlings, ever in tune with their father, squeaked and somehow shrank further against him.

Before Mathias could panic and retreat a friendly voice called out, “I was wondering when you’d show up!”

Mathias narrowed his focus down onto the other merman, and his two older merlings who were racing towards him, with their three younger siblings tagging along behind them while the older two squealed gleefully, “Uncle Matty!”

Mathias tried to stretch his trembling lips into a smile and held himself stiffly still so as not to flinch away from his niblings as he hoarsely answered, “Hey Felix, niblings.”

Felix flashed him a mischievous smile and teased, “Hey Matty, I’ve been waiting here every night for weeks. I didn’t think my merlings were that much older than yours.”

Mathias started to shake his head, but then his brows furrowed as he counted his brother's younger merlings and mumbled, “Didn’t you have four?”

“Yeah,” Felix agreed with a sad smile, “I lost one of them…”

Mathias shook his merlings loose and told them to play with their cousins before forcing himself further into the kelp to clasp his older brother sympathetically on the shoulder.

Felix squeezed the hand on his shoulder gratefully and turned to silently watch the merlings cautiously circle around and poke at each other.

With only a few weeks between the majority of them, they were around the same size, aside from Glutton and the two older merlings, so it took Felix a few moments to double take and incredulously ask, “Do you still have all ten?”

A small rare smile tugged at Mathias’ lips as he proudly watched the merlings start to play and answered his brother in a shy little rasp, “Yeah.”

Grinning, Felix pulled his startled brother into a hug and messed with his hair for a few minutes before firmly declaring, “I’m following you out tomorrow.”

Mathias batted the older merman’s hands away and fixed his own hair before sourly responding, “If she even lets me choose where to go.”

Snorting, Felix rolled his eyes and scornfully said, “Like that harridan is going to want you going anywhere other than where she’s already stuck you.” At Mathias’ continued gloomy doubtful face, he ruffled his hair more gently this time and grinned maliciously as he pointed out, “We’re brothers, and brothers, especially when their merlings are of the same age, stick together. She can’t stop me from following you anymore.”

Finally Mathias felt reassured enough to pull a small smile onto his face and bump shoulders with his brother as he mumbled out, “Thanks.”

Felix’s grin softened as the pair turned to watch their merlings. The silence didn’t last long though before Tito’s voice interrupted with a dry, “I see your vigil finally paid off.”

And then Darius was excitedly calling out, “Niblings!” As he was swarmed by fifteen excited merlings, he looked over to where Tito was moving out of the way towards their other brothers and dismissively said, “Oh and hey Matty, Felix.”

Felix disgruntledly asked, “Is he always this bad with you?”

Shaking his head, Mathias bemusedly replied, “No, must be because you’re here.”

Felix rolled his eyes and muttered, “Figures.”

The trio then settled to watch with palpable amusement as their goofball brother played with the merlings until he “died.” Then Felix called out, “Alright youngsters, it’s time to go say hey to your grandma and greet your cousins.”

Mathias’ offspring watched in confusion as the other five left. Then Mathias chirped and called them over before following after Felix himself. He chose to ignore the curious look Felix gave him over the chirp for now.

Chapter 44

As Mathias followed his brothers deeper into the forest he couldn’t help but feel like he was just waiting for the net to descend.

They heard the voices first, it started as a soft murmur of unintelligible entwining conversation, and then as they got past more of the sound eating vegetation they could pick out occasional words and individual voices and the shrill excited squeals of merlings at play.

Mathias could not help but slow down even as his heart sped up, and he gulped in great big gasps of water. Felix continued on ahead of them with one brief glance back, but Tito and Darius exchanged looks and dropped down so they could wrap a comforting arm around their brother from either side.

Mathias came to a complete stop as he shuddered and trembled fearfully. Eventually he managed to whimper out, “I can’t do this.”

Pressing his head to the side of his brother's, Darius murmured soothingly, “It’s just our family, it’s really not as many as it sounds like.”

Tito gave him a gentle squeeze and gave him further reassurances, “Our siblings’ mates and our sisters' merlings won’t even be there until you’re more comfortable.”

Mathias eyes darted around, not quite taking his brother's words in as he searched for an escape from the hidden danger.

Tito patted his shoulder, pointing out, “We’ll be right there with you.”

Darius sighed, pressing Mathias’ ear to his chest he covered his eyes and other ear with his hands. Mathias stiffened up at first but Tito gently caught his hands before he could start thrashing.

Slowly Mathias relaxed, his breathing evened out, and then Darius carefully lifted his hand from his ear as he coaxingly said, “Take your time Matty, and like Tito said, we’ll be with you the whole way.”

Mathias mutely nodded against Darius’ chest as he grasped Tito’s hands before he could pull away. He took in his brothers’ comforting presence and the steady thrum of Darius’ heart beat in one ear as he absorbed the scents and sounds of the place. He reminded himself, ‘This was home. More good things happened here than bad. Everyone waiting for us up ahead loves and cares about me and my merlings.’

It didn’t entirely help. Even so, he was able to slowly calm down to the point he could let go of Tito and pull away from Darius. Cracking his eyes open he looked from Tito’s worried frown, to Darius’ cheerful grin and over his merlings anxiously clinging forms.

Forcing a smile onto his face, Mathias focused on his youngsters as with only a slight tremble in his voice he managed to say with a fair approximation of cheerfulness, “Let’s go catch up with your cousins.” They perked up considerably at their father’s act and turned to chase after the already departed uncle and cousins.

Trusting that his brothers would watch his surroundings, Mathias kept his attention on his merlings as he followed after them. He didn’t even notice when they arrived amongst the others, so when Sophia, one of Felix’s clutchmates, rushed over squealing happily, “Matty!” Mathias whimpered and jerked fearfully to the side.

Before she could even react though, Darius had gotten up into her space and batted his eyes playfully while asking, “Am I still prettier than you?”

She pulled up short and groaned in exasperation while rolling her eyes and replied, “Ugg, yes, you’re still disgustingly gorgeous. Now, would you please let me see my favorite brother.”

In the background, all three of her clutch-brothers simultaneously let out an outraged, “Hey!”

To which she dismissively replied, “You’re all jerks and you know it.” Further ignoring her six clutchmates' playful bickering, she gave Darius a pointed look.

Darius thoughtfully tapped his chin before shaking his head and letting out a regretful sigh as he replied, “Nope, no can do. I can’t subject him to your ugliness after having graced him with my gorgeous looks for so long.”

Sophia scoffed at that, “Oh come on! You are not that much prettier than me.”

By this point, Mathias had recovered from his fright, so after reassuring his merlings and sending them off to play, he draped an arm over Darius’ shoulder and leaned against him as he pulled on a happy mask and greeted his enthusiastic sister, “Hey Phia.”

“Matty!” she squealed happily once more, then tried to get around Darius. But it didn’t matter in which direction she went, Darius and Mathias simply turned with her. Finally she stopped and narrowed her eyes at Darius, giving him a disgruntled growl. After a moment of him smirking back at her while Mathias started feeling an actual urge to giggle, she brightened up and moved forward, enveloping them both into a hug.

Mathias stiffened up until he heard Darius loudly proclaiming, “Oh ew! Gross! Why’d you go and hug me for?”

Smirking, she gave Darius a loud kiss on the forehead before smugly telling him, “Because you wouldn’t let me hug Matty.”

Scoffing himself, Darius told her, “If he wanted a hug, he would’ve sought it out.”

Pulling back, she grumbled and crossed her arms, “If he didn’t want one he could’ve said no.”

Their mother put an arm around Sophia and pulled her back even further as she said, “Hey Matty, Darius.” Her eyes roamed over what she could see of Mathias before settling onto his fixed smile and asking, “How are my grandmerlings?”

Mathias relaxed slightly as he looked to where the merlings were playing. He took a moment to watch them before he softly responded, “They seem to be settling in.”

A subtle smile tugged at the corners of her lips and with a nod she offered, “That’s good, why don’t you join us and tell everyone what you’ve been doing for the past year?”

“Okay,” Mathias agreed weakly, and held onto Darius like a remora as they moved over to settle down with the other adults.

When they had done so, Tito sat on the other side of him and leaned companionably against him. He took a deep breath, and watched the merlings instead of any of his adult relatives. They waited patiently, although not silently he noticed, at least until he started speaking, that is. When he spoke with what they no doubt considered uncharacteristic shyness, they fell quiet. Whenever he started feeling overwhelmed or overly upset, Darius would distract everyone from him by asking something that would get someone telling a story of their own.

Even so, Mathias did not dare to divulge most of the abuse that had happened, nor to let slip even the slightest bit about the harpies. In addition to not wanting them to know the extent of his shame, he could feel unfriendly eyes watching and every so often when the current shifted he would get a stronger scent of Chloe that had him shuddering in fear.

It had to end eventually though. The moment came when Chloe swam in amongst them, right up to the fearfully trembling Mathias. She smiled sweetly at the group and let out a gentle laugh as she said, “It’s time to go Mathias.”

Not daring to look directly at her, Mathias watched her approach from the corner of his eye. At her words he flinched, and failed at not cringing as he called over his merlings who were already racing over to cling to him.

Chloe’s nose flared in annoyance, but she maintained her smile as she twisted about to lead Mathias away.

Mathias could feel the panic building up within him, in the same way that his little ones were trying to burrow into his back as he swam. But his brothers had dared not follow, and he did not dare to stop or turn away with her right there.

Arriving at her sleeping area, Chloe said not a word. She merely gave him a disdainful look before curling up.

Mathias hovered there, gasping and trembling before he stuttered out, “G-go see your M-mother.” After they had slowly moved off his back and to their mother’s side, Mathias fled to a spot that had just enough kelp to shield him from having to see his mate, where he collapsed into a panting, whimpering heap.

Mathias spent several minutes fighting the urge to go and pull his merlings away from their mother when a pained squeal had him up and moving faster than he could think. His motion was quickly arrested however when Shadow came barreling into him, with the other merlings not far behind hir.

Mathias gathered hir into his arms and moved back to where he’d been trying to curl up and carefully checked hir over in the dim filtered light. Even in such lighting he was able to make out the bruises on Shadow’s left shoulder, but at least he could smell no blood.

Sighing mournfully, he curled protectively around his youngsters, and hummed them a soothing lullaby, before following them into a fitful, nightmare filled slumber.

Chapter 45

The only upside to sleeping so near to Chloe, if it could be considered as such, was that her scent kept Mathias too terrified to move or cry out even in his sleep.

When he woke up stiff, sore and achy from having slept so badly, it was to Chloe looming just inches away with a curious expression on her face. Mathias jerked and strangled a scream as he cringed away from her with his tail pressing protectively over his still drowsy merlings.

Chloe snorted in annoyance and narrowed her eyes at him as she hissed out a warning, “Don’t you dare start following your brothers around. Do you understand?”

Whimpering, Mathias repeatedly nodded as she tapped her fingers on the ground impatiently until he managed to stammer out, “Y-y-yes.”

With an aggrieved sigh, Chloe rolled her eyes before slipping on her well practiced friendly mask as she turned away from him and went to do whatever it was she did everyday.

Whimpering softly, Mathias repeatedly checked over his fry until he felt like he had enough control of himself to swim out. As he moved Shadow slipped under his hair to attach hirself to his back.

Swimming out, Mathias tried to keep his eyes on the ground in front of him. He could not help but watch everything from the corners of his eyes though, which led to several instances of him flinching away from someone just swimming by him. When they occasionally tried to stop and exchange greetings Mathias would whimper fearfully and swim faster for a beat or two. Within a few short moments that felt like several hours he had burst out of the kelp forest and was heading to the desolate coral.

From behind he heard Felix call out, “Hey, Matty. What's the rush?”

Whimpering softly once more, Mathias all but stopped as he glanced over his shoulder to whisper hoarsely, “Hey Felix… I’m not supposed to follow you guys.”

Narrowing his eyes, Felix growled out sarcastically, “Good thing I’m following you then.”

As Mathias’ lips tried to twitch into a smile his brother grumbled to himself, “Sick controlling hagfish.” Mathias flinched at those words, so Felix made an exaggerated show of looking around at the lack of anyone within sight and raised his eyebrows as he asked, “So where are we going?”

Tugging the barest trace of a smile onto his face, Mathias replied, “If you’re tagging along, we’ll go to the sandy shallows.”

Once they’d started into motion again Felix curiously asked, “The hunting there still good?”

Mathias shook his head and explained, “Not really, they’ve outgrown it. But it’s the safest place and you need to reteach your fry a few signals.”

Felix gave him a baffled look as he asked, “But why? The chirps and whistles say so little.”

Mathias chirped his merlings into hitching a ride and waited for Felix to follow suit with his words before speeding up and answering, “Explanations for what the danger is, why they need to come now or hide can wait till after they’re safe.”

A soft “Huh” popped out of Felix’s mouth before he lapsed into a thoughtful silence.

They soon arrived at the sandy shallows, although Mathias did not bring them as near the shore as normal, much to his merlings obvious confusion when he called them to his front.

Ignoring his curious brother for the moment, Mathias looked his youngsters over. With a sad frown his gaze settled onto Shadow’s bruises and with a sigh he asked, “Where is your mother?”

With them all pointing unerringly in the same direction he wordlessly grumbled and cleared his throat to explain the day’s plan, “Okay, so before we go hunting, we’re going to practice some signals. Are you all ready?”

After Mathias received a chorus of yeses he turned to Felix and said, “We’ll take turns giving them signals. Then once your three have the hang of it we’ll go somewhere with decent hunting.”

Felix nodded and then they took turns whistling and chirping at the merlings. Felix was surprised the first time Mathias’ offspring burrowed into the sand, but as Mathias pointed out there was nowhere else to hide. They both were amused by the merlings obeying and rushing to whichever merman had signaled them. When they were but fry, they would’ve only obeyed and gone to their parents’ signals.

“I guess that’s why the signals get phased out,” Mathias murmured in amusement as he peered under himself at where thirteen merlings were trying to cram themselves into his shadow.

Chuckling, Felix readily agreed, “Yeah, it could get rather chaotic when there are a lot of mermen. But with just us I think you’re right that we need them.”

Mathias turned a somber gaze onto his brother and pointed out, “Even so, it would be wise for them to continue using the danger and hide whistles.”

Felix tapped his chin thoughtfully for a minute before nodding in agreement.

Mathias pulled a smile onto his face and addressed the merlings, “Are you guys ready to go to the swamp?”

Ten of them shot out from under Mathias on a heading directly towards the swamp while they chattered happily. It only took them a moment to realize that their father was not with them, and so they turned back and stared at the other five with eager cries of, “Swamp,” and “Hungry,” intermixed with each other.

“Coming,” Mathias called out reassuringly and gave his brother a questioning look as he moved on after his merlings.

Chuckling, Felix looked to his own confused offspring and said with a gesture, “Come on you lot, let's go see what a swamp is all about.”

Since they weren’t hitching a ride this time, Mathias’ youngsters kept to their habit of scrounging as they swam even though they weren’t going at a particularly leisurely pace.

Mathias peeked back curiously at his still slightly chubbier niblings, who seemed astonished at the sandy floor they swam over. Astonished, that is, until they noticed how shallow the water was getting.

Mathias couldn’t help the grin that curled up on the right side of his face as the trio disappeared under their father’s hair, who himself gave Mathias an alarmed look. “You’ll get used to it!” Mathias called back, with a soft laugh hiding in his voice.

“I don’t want to get used to it,” Felix grumbled loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Turning his head back to watch his merlings, Mathias supposed that he should feel bad about enjoying his brother's discomfort. But it was so nice to have permanent company, that he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

As they started swimming up the river, Mathias looked to Felix once more, finding his brother’s hair puffed out, and his teeth bared in a silent snarl. At Mathias’ flinch Felix pressed his lips together, covering his fangs.

Mathias smiled reassuringly and opened his mouth only to have Felix sarcastically interject before he could say anything, “I know, I’ll get used to it.”

He could not withhold a snicker at his brother’s tone and so, to the tune of said brother’s grumbling, Mathias turned with a small smile on his face to watch his merlings show off for their still-hiding friends at how much fun it was to swim against the current.

He knew that they would tire of their game soon, and then they could make much faster speed once they were riding. ‘Besides,’ Mathias thought, ‘it will give Felix more time to get used to the freshwater before I subject him to swimming amongst trees.’

When they entered the swamp proper, the merlings let go of Mathias to browse while waiting for their father to settle down. Once again Mathias turned to Felix who had a rictus of a smile on his face, and again before Mathias could say anything he ground out, “I’m getting used to it. Can’t you see?”

Mathias shook his head and solemnly said, “No. It looks like you’re dying over there.”

“Well, well…” Felix started before puffing his cheeks up in frustration, and shooting Mathias a glare as he failed to properly articulate his feelings.

Mathias’ lips twitched as he fought down a smile and he helpfully supplied, “the words you want are, ‘Fuck you.’”

Without taking any time to think about it Felix snapped out to the world at large, “Fuck you!” Then, after panting for a moment or two he calmed down and gave Mathias an astonished look as he said, “Thank you, that felt surprisingly good.”

That smile finally broke through as Mathias softly replied, “You’re welcome.” He then turned about to graze upon the vegetation himself as he sought out a good hunting spot for their merlings.

Soon Cuddles swam above hir uncle and held out a small sprig of greenery as ze said to the forms that were clinging to his back, “Eat!”

Both mermen stopped to look at hir, and with a smile Mathias explained, “Cuddles sweety, you need to give them time to get used to the swamp. Why don’t you try and offer it to Uncle Felix instead?”

Felix shot Mathias a look of alarm that was completely wiped off his face by the time Cuddles was in front of him and thrusting the sprig into his face while demanding, “Eat!”

With a well practiced smile he took it while graciously saying, “Thank you.” Cautiously he popped it into his mouth and slowly chewed.

A look of surprise took over his face as his cautious chewing became leisurely chewing. Finally swallowing he stated in amazement, “That was good. What was it?”

Cuddles puffed up proudly and declared, “Ress!” before swimming off again.

Chuckling, Mathias elaborated, “It was watercress.”

“Neat!” Felix exclaimed as he looked around with far more curiosity and started asking questions about everything around them. Pretty soon, his merlings had emerged and started learning about the swamp alongside their father, and soon after that Mathias found a spot to settle down and keep an eye on his merlings from while he taught Felix. As Felix’s merlings had quickly remembered that they were hungry and joined their cousins.

Eventually though, Mathias got distracted by a shadow, and looked up to watch the large blurry form flit among the trees. A tension that he didn’t even know he’d been carrying relaxed, as this had been the first time that he had come to the swamp without having some eyes in the sky to help him keep a lookout.

As it flew out of sight, Mathias let out a small sigh and fought off a pang of longing as he looked back to his brother, who was most definitely smirking at him.

Disgruntled, Mathias furrowed his brows and grumpily asked, “What?”

“You’re making love to them,” Felix singsonged out smugly.

Snorting to hide his alarm, Mathias rolled his eyes and grumbled out, “Don’t be ridiculous, everyone knows that you can’t make love to anyone else when you’re mated.”

Chortling as if Mathias had just confirmed everything, Felix threw out a sarcastic, “Oh yeah, tell that to the rock I make love to nightly.”

“What?” Mathias asked dumbfoundedly.

While using his hands to help illustrate his point, Felix fondly reminisced, “It has curves in all the right places. It’s just missing a head and a voice.”

Blinking, Mathias simply repeated, as if his brain was stuck, “What?”

With a happy little sigh, Felix continued, “It even has the perfect hole.”

Blinking a couple more times, Mathias blurted out, “Aren’t you ever worried something else will already be in the hole?”

Smirking, Felix shook his head as he responded, “Nah, the thrill of the unknown is part of the excitement. Besides, Ellie likes to watch and pretend it’s her.”

Dazedly, and without properly thinking about the words coming out of his mouth, Mathias mumbled, “You should use your tongue on her while she watches, especially that nub at the top of her channel.”

It was Felix’s turn to blink at Mathias in surprise. He however quickly recovered and smugly replied, “Thanks for the tip, I’ll have to try that.”

Mathias shook his body at those words and turned sharply away as he stiffly said, “I don’t make love to harpies.” Settling down to watch the merlings he mumbled, “And it doesn’t sound like you make love to rocks.”

Outright cackling, Felix pounced on Mathias and rolled him over so he could see the form flying above them once again. Then with an arm still wrapped around his brother he smugly asked, “So, tell me about this not making love thing you do with harpies?”

Exasperated, Mathias shoved his way free as he snapped out, “Would you just fucking let it go already!”

“Alright, alright,” Felix replied while holding his hands up placatingly.

When Mathias had stopped huffing and glaring so hard, Felix folded his hands together and thoughtfully said while gazing up at the sky, “But you know, if you ever want to spend some time with someone who feels like a true mate, I’ll help you.”

Mathias gave his brother one last suspicious look and irritated huff before turning his attention back to the merlings.

Chapter 46

On the way back to the kelp forest, Mathias could not help but think about his detestable mate’s words, and his brows furrowed anxiously. Without even looking at his brother, nor thinking terribly much about his destination, he abruptly altered his course, startling a chorus of squeaks out of the tired merlings on his back.

Felix looked back and forth between the direction they had been going and their new heading and asked in confusion, “Uh, where are we going?”

“She didn’t want me following you,” Mathias mumbled almost as if to himself while his brain chased itself as he puzzled out the problem.

“Which is why I followed you,” Felix agreed with proud confidence.

“Doesn’t matter…” Mathias muttered giving his brother no other explanation or thought no matter what he said, or how he asked.

It wasn’t until Mathias had been curled up within his nest for a bit that he finally looked up at his fidgeting worried brother. “Darius gets away with coming to visit me once or twice a week,” he slowly began.

Felix sat down on the edge of the nest as he sullenly, stubbornly mumbled, “She can’t stop me from following you.”

“No,” Mathias sadly agreed, “but she can punish me if I allow it too often.”

Startling, Felix went wide eyed with guilt and worry as he asked, “Do you want me to stop coming with you then?”

Looking around at the nest that Chloe had never been to, Mathias shook his head as a sly smile grew on his lips and he answered the other merman’s question with a question, “Do you think you’d be able to find this spot again?”

Felix looked around as well, a look of awe slowly growing upon his face before he finally whispered, “This was Dad’s first nest.”

Perking up, Mathias asked excitedly, “Really?”

Flashing him a grin, Felix enthused, “Yeah! I lived in this nest right here, and then later you guys hatched in it. I probably wouldn’t remember the place though, except Dad decided he needed to move you guys the second you hatched so Mom gathered us merlings up to help Dad escort the lot of you to the new nesting site, and then Dad put us to work helping him build a new nest.”

Mathias hummed contentedly for a moment before quirking an eyebrow as he asked, “Sooo?”

Felix looked confused for only a moment or two before he perked up and answered, “Yeah sure, I can find this spot no problem.”

Looking down, Mathias fiddled with his claws as he laid his reasoning out for Felix, “If I appear to be complying with her desire for me to stay isolated then her ire isn’t likely to get too bad. So if we meet up here instead of traveling together from the kelp forest and then neither of us actually directly talks about each other when mentioning what we’d done for the day, then she’ll hopefully assume that I’ve been giving you the slip every day.”

“Hmm,” Felix said thoughtfully as he tapped his chin, “But if we’re talking about the same place, won’t she get suspicious?”

Shrugging, Mathias levelly pointedly out, “She never asks me about my day, so I have a lot of days I could talk about.”

Scowling, Felix mumbled and fumed about how if someone wasn’t even going to ask about their merlings then they just shouldn’t reproduce.

Smiling wanly, Mathias patiently waited.

Finally, Felix sighed and rolled his eyes as he held a hand out to Mathias. Once Mathias took his hand, Felix pulled him up out of the nest and sourly said, “It’s a plan a shark wouldn’t even eat, but it’ll probably work so I guess I’ll play along.”

“Thank you,” Mathias faintly rasped out.

And with that, their very tired merlings clinging to their backs and discussions still ringing of what part of their day not to talk about, they set off for the forest once more.

Approaching the kelp, Mathias found it even harder than the day before to force himself forward. He was about to turn around and flee back the way he came when Darius appeared in front of him and firmly grasped his shoulders while letting him look at nothing else.

As his breathing slowed to match Darius’ deep even breaths, and the roaring of his heartbeat faded away, he heard Tito quietly reassuring Felix, “Go ahead, we’ll take care of him.”

“Well, if you’re sure…” Felix murmured uncertainly before swimming off with one last uneasy glance at Mathias.

Gently bumping his shoulder into Mathias' trembling arm, Tito dryly said, “So hanging out with Felix all day, that must’ve been a trial.”

Mathias’ lips twitched as he tried to smile and after a couple tries he quietly replied, “It wasn’t so bad.”

With a cheerful smile, Darius asked, “Everyone has been waiting. Are you ready, or do you need more time?”

Whimpering softly, Mathias closed his eyes and spent another moment gathering himself before nodding to his brothers and setting back off with them to either side.

When they arrived at their family’s gathering, Felix was in the middle of telling the harrowing tale of his journey upriver. Mathias managed to drag a smile onto his face as he visibly ignored the adults and went to lounge amongst the playing merlings.

He must’ve drifted off at some point though because when he blinked, someone else was in the middle of talking and a couple of his older niblings were curled up atop him.

Mathias tensed up, eyes darting around as he located and counted his merlings. Before he could relax, however, Chloe showed up once more. Convulsively swallowing his whimpers of fear, he carefully shook himself loose and called his youngsters over as she exchanged pleasantries with his family who had varying levels of success in hiding their displeasure at her presence.

Turning towards him, Chloe arched a brow at his timid approach and then, with a pleasant smile and not a word to him she turned to lead the way back to her sleeping area.

It was no easier to follow her than the night before, however this time when Chloe curled up to sleep, Mathias neither tried to make his merlings stay nor retreated himself. Instead he curled up as near his abusive mate as he could force himself to do and tried to go to sleep as well.

He must’ve had some success, his awareness kept swimming in and out as his merlings left and returned to his side repeatedly. He never felt them go further away than their mother so he tried to ignore it, but his rest that night was even worse than the previous.

When Chloe’s early morning stirring had him allowing himself to open his eyes and checking over his merlings, he was met by an extremely dismaying sight. None of them were as bad off as Shadow, who hadn’t left his side all night, but every single one of them had light bruises on their shoulders or arms.

Not daring to look directly at her, but needing to speak up in the faintest hope that it might help, Mathias watched her from the corner of his eye and cleared his throat.

When she turned her curious gray eyes onto him as he soothingly patted the backs of their merlings he, with as much confidence as he could muster said, “Merlings are more delicate than they seem and should be handled with great care.”

His shoulders tensed up as she stared at him with narrowed eyes, and he fought the urge to cringe away from her. Eventually she left with nary a word spoken.

Releasing a breath he hadn’t even been aware of holding, Mathias swam out of the forest in much the same way as he had the day before. Only this time there was no brother waiting to follow him.

Once they were free of the kelp he had his offspring hold on as he made for their old nest, where he could collapse and safely take a nap while awaiting his brother’s arrival.

Although he was napping, he was not sleeping very deeply and so quickly woke up when he heard a pair of large merman sized creatures moving towards them.

As his head shot up and around to watch the approaching noisemakers his merlings watched with their cheeks bulging with the seaweed that they’d plucked from the nest. Once he had identified the sound as Felix and Darius he relaxed and tugged a smile onto his face as he asked of his merlings the question that would become part of their morning ritual, “Where is your mother?”

Immediately they all pointed in the same direction. Slumping his shoulders he sighed and explained to them how much safer they would all be if they could get away from her.

Mid-explanation the other five arrived, and as he finished speaking, Darius cheerfully supplied, “What your dad is trying to say, is that if you will just reject the bitch already you can all go be happy without her!”

Smiling faintly, Mathias neither agreed nor disagreed, but the smile did not last long as he said fretfully to his brothers, “What am I going to do? I tried leaving them with their mother and that happened,” he gestured to Shadow's shoulder before continuing, “So I tried sleeping next to her and then the rest happened…”

Darius looked over the merlings in obvious dismay and Felix said grimly, “Sleep separate.” At Mathias’ worried, confused look he elaborated, “Sleep separate but nearby. It’ll satisfy their need to be near their mother while keeping them from wanting to actually roam to her. Ellie and I have done it a few times on accident when we’re upset with each other.”

Giving Felix a thoughtful look, Mathias asked, “How separate?”

With a shrug, Felix answered, “With just enough plants to shield you from sight should be about right.”

Mathias nodded slowly and gave himself a shake as he informed his brothers, “We should practice the signals a little more and then we can go to the drop off.”

Mathias’ niblings seemed to have a better grasp of what the signals actually meant, instead of just following what their cousins were doing by the time that they went to the drop off, and Felix was far more comfortable with this environment. Which led to several moments of Darius or Mathias having to prod him into being more alert.

All in all the day passed by without incident, or much variation from the previous. They went their separate ways and, with great difficulty and, once again, the help of Darius and Tito Mathias went to hang out with his family with the same result as the previous day.

Mathias curled up that night in the same spot he had tried to sleep in on his first night back, and fell into the same restless sleep, expecting to awaken to more of the same.

Chapter 47

Mathias awoke to the predawn light filtering through the water and leaves. After a careful examination of his youngsters, he let out a sigh of relief that they seemed to have suffered no new harm and the bruises they had were slowly fading. Felix’s advice seemed, thankfully, to have been sound.

Quietly, he nudged his still sleepy offspring onto his back before making his way out to his nest. At that early hour not very many merfolk were stirring and so he successfully escaped the kelp without coming across anyone.

Gratefully, he collapsed into his nest. Mathias barely noticed that someone had come by and tended the seaweed within it before he drifted off to sleep.

Mathias was woken up by the sound of someone approaching. He checked upon his merlings who had stayed obediently confined to the nest while he napped. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes and asked about their mother, only to get the disappointingly predictable answer before he gave them permission to exit the nest.

Once Felix showed up instead of answering his question about where they were going that day Mathias gave him a measuring look and asked, “Can you help me with something?”

Perking up with eager curiosity, Felix spouted out, “Yeah, sure, anything!”

Nodding decisively, Mathias turned his back to his brother and pulled his hair out of the way, exposing three parallel stitched up claw marks over the top of his right shoulder blade. Before the other merman could properly react, Mathias tonelessly inquired, “Can you remove my stitches?”

Hesitantly, Felix placed a hand between his younger brother’s shoulders as he worriedly asked, “Err… umm… How?”

Mathias had spent some time thinking about how to remove the stitches on his own, but unfortunately he could not reach these with any of the methods he’d thought up. So he evenly said, “Work your eyetooth between the skin and thread and snip it with your incisors, then pull it free of my skin.”

Felix however hesitated still as he worriedly pointed out, “But I might nip you.”

“You might,” Mathias agreed carelessly.

He leaned slowly towards Mathias’ back before pulling sharply away and worried in a mumble, “But won’t it hurt?”

“Not much,” Mathias reassured with a shrug.

Felix’s eyes roamed over his brother's many scars. Huffing unhappily, he sarcastically spat out, “Define ‘not much.’”

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Mathias let go of his hair and whistled the merlings to follow as he twisted around to go back to his old nest.

Following after as well, Felix growled in frustration, “Barnacles Mathias! You really need to remember how to communicate.”

Shaking his head, Mathias glanced back at him and sorrowfully said, “I shouldn’t have asked that of you, I’m sorry.”

Rolling his eyes, Felix snapped out, “If it needs doing it needs doing, and I’ll do it too. Even if I don’t like it. So don’t apologize and get back here.”

Mathias was already going slow enough that the merlings could keep up. Surprised, he dropped back to swim beside his brother, and let him grumble for another couple of minutes before he slowly asked, “Would you even do it if there was someone else who could do it with less risk?”

Giving Mathias an askance glance, Felix suspiciously quibbled, “It depends on why this someone else isn’t going to do it.”

With the corners of his lips twitching, although whether his face was trying to smile or frown even he was unsure, Mathias simply replied, “The fewer people trying to keep a secret, the easier it is to keep.”

Felix gave Mathias a long, considering look before responding, “I’ll keep the merlings distracted.”

After exchanging a soft “thank you” and a gruffly bewildered “you’re welcome” they continued on in silence until they reached the old nest. The mermen separated there, with Mathias instructing his merlings to stay with their uncle while he went to place the yellow rock at the top of the boulder.

He took a moment to clean up the rock before he lifted it and swam up to place it. Then he swam back to rejoin the others as they waited.

Gazing thoughtfully at the nearby boulder, Felix conversationally said, “It’s a nice rock, but I still like mine better.”

Choking out a laugh, Mathias shook his head and tried to get into the bantering mood that Felix was setting up. “You know,” he responded dryly, “you’re probably not the only merman to visit that rock.”

Felix stuck his nose up and pretended to be offended as he asked in mock outrage, “Are you saying your rock is better than mine because it’s more faithful?”

Shaking his head, Mathias gravely told him, “No, I’m saying my boulder is more mine because I don’t have to share it.”

Felix gasped at that and placed a hand over his heart, as he gave Mathias a sorely wounded look. It didn’t last long as Felix soon dissolved into helpless giggles that made it easier for Mathias to bring out a smile of his own.

Chuckling still, Felix briefly gripped Mathias’ shoulder and said, “But no seriously, this nesting site is just awful.”

“Yeah,” Mathias agreed gravely and stared off at nothing. Just as Felix was about to try and regain his attention Mathias morosely pointed out, “But, she laid the eggs in the sand as near the shore as she could get.”

Felix’s face turned an interesting shade of purplish red before he managed to spit out, “Someone needs to beach that thing.”

Pulling that smile back onto his face, Mathias plopped his head onto his brother's shoulder, who still fuming muttered, “If she’s going to abandon them, she should just do it properly and leave you to raise them without her flipping interference and depredation.”

As Mathias’ shoulders started shaking with an odd unhappy silent laughter, Felix wrapped an arm around him and continued to grumble, albeit more quietly.

They stayed like this for another hour until a pair of shadows circled them three times and flew back towards shore. At Felix’s questioning look Mathias shook his head and said, “Not yet.”

When a new, slightly larger shadow passed overhead and started to circle, Mathias told his youngsters to stay with their uncle once again and moved off to meet her at the boulder.

As he was swimming away, Felix called out, “Hey!” When Mathias paused and looked over his shoulder, Felix continued, “Maybe sometime when Darius comes with me, we could actually spend the day apart.”

“Maybe,” Mathias easily agreed before continuing on his way.

Reaching the top of the boulder, Mathias smiled up at Helen and wiggled up beside her as she peered curiously into the water.

Following her gaze to the distant fuzzy form he answered her unasked question, “My brother Felix, and his three merlings who are the same age as mine.”

She turned her perceptive gaze upon Mathias and guessed, “So that means that he has an excuse to follow you around?”

Humming an agreement, he nodded as the healer’s stare narrowed suspiciously, as if she could tell that he was hiding something from her. But she rarely pressed him on such things, and today was no exception.

Releasing a soft sigh at his stubborn silence, Helen said, “Alright, turn around and let me see how your back has healed.” Once he had turned his back to her and pulled his hair out of the way she easily removed the stitches.

Letting go of his hair, Mathias cautiously asked, “How is everyone?”

Smiling ruefully, she let him know, “We’re doing alright, but we do miss you. How about you guys?”

Ducking his head shyly, he admitted, “I miss you gals too.” Then he perked up, turning his eyes to the water as he continued, “The merlings are doing alright though, they’ve made so many new friends that I don’t know how they’re not feeling overwhelmed. And my family is doing what they can to take care of us.”

Helen draped her wing over his back as she watched the water with him and soothed him, “You should hold onto that. That your family is there.”

Mathias nodded, twitching his lips into a small smile as they sat there in companionable silence for a few minutes.

With a sigh, he rubbed his face and broke the silence to say, “I really should take them somewhere with decent hunting though.”

Chuckling, Helen withdrew her wing and gave him a nod as they exchanged farewells before he slipped back into the water once more.

~~~~~

That evening after Chloe had led Mathias back to her spot, she stopped him before he could flee to where he’d been sleeping, “Mathias. Settle them down and then come back.”

Shuddering, he kept his face turned so she could not see the fear and revulsion on it as he nodded and quickly fled.

He knew he would not have long before she came and dragged him back, and he was thankful at least that she would allow him the chance to settle the merlings down so they would not have to witness his shame.

Still, his hands trembled, and his voice stuttered as he coaxed them into a pile without laying down with them. Once Cuddles had closed hir eyes and the rest looked like they would stay put, Mathias steeled himself and returned to his mate.

She wanted exactly what Mathias had feared she wanted, and she got it in the same way she always did. Mathias could not entirely hold back his distressed whimpers, even if he did succeed in keeping his face blank this time. And so when he saw her angry face he didn’t even attempt to dodge his punishment, hoping to just get it out of the way sooner.

Slumping down beside his merlings to tend the bloody rends in his chest, Mathias didn’t even notice Darius on the other side of them. Until he plucked the needle that Mathias had just taken out of his ear from his trembling fingers and said softly, “Tell me what to do.”

Mathias averted his eyes in humiliation and swallowed around the lump in his throat as he pulled a string off his wrist. Offering it to his brother he raggedly, and unable to look him in the face, guided him through threading the needle and stitching his chest closed.

After Mathias put away the needle and curled up with his merlings, Darius curled around him. He hummed soothingly, holding the silently sobbing merman as he fell into a dreamless slumber.

The next morning when he woke up to the bright morning light, it was to find both Darius and Tito curled up with him and his merlings and no sign that Chloe had even tried to chase them off. As time passed on, except on mornings after she had injured Mathias, as long as Darius was gone by the time she was leaving for the day there would be no objections.

Darius theorized that it was because she felt guilty on those mornings, while Tito posited that it was because it gave her an excuse to have her brother in a sleep pile with her. Felix was sure that she was a psycho hagfish and it was impossible to predict what she would do so they should just take the wins they could get. Mathias however, did not care to try and spare her more of his thoughts than he had to.

Chapter 48

Over the next six months the three brothers slipped into a predictable pattern of Darius and Felix openly following Mathias whenever he was too injured to reasonably give them the slip. About once or twice a week, they really did separate so that Mathias and his merlings could more easily spend time with the harpies without having to worry as much about someone slipping up.

The last time Mathias had seen the harpies, Cora had told him that they’d most likely have a surprise for him. Mathias thus found himself anxiously waiting in one of the river's meanders. She had told him it would be a good surprise, but good surprises had been so few and far between in his life for the last two years that even coming from his harpies he could not help but worry. It didn’t help that they were taking longer to appear than normal.

Finally he spotted a trio of shadows fly overhead, and he wondered if perhaps Alula had come along as well. But when he popped out of the water near the bank he stared in amazement as the third harpy was someone completely different from Alula.

They stared at each other for a few minutes, her grin getting wider and wider until finally he managed to excitedly squeak out, “Clara?”

She let out a delighted little laugh as Mathias looked between the beaming harpies. Then Clara chirped out, “Come on out girls and meet your dad.”

A small genuine smile blossomed upon his face as he watched in a happy daze as seven little harpies fluttered down from their mother’s and aunts’ backs, hopping over towards the new person.

“Hey girls,” Mathias greeted them softly. He curiously looked them over as Clara introduced them by name. Their hair ranged in color from his own medium blonde to their mother’s dark brown, all with a sparkly green shimmer to them. Their feathers, also highlighted with sparkling green, covered everything except their feet and faces, with the occasional tuft of white down adorably poking out between the outer feathers.

He did have to wonder if such feather coverage was normal, so he asked, “Are baby harpies usually so covered in feathers?”

“Well,” Clara explained as the youngsters chattered and bumped against him, “they’ll lose the chest feathers when they grow up. Leg feathers aren’t too uncommon though, when the dad is a minotaur or satyr. Or, I guess, merman,” she finished with a laugh.

Humming happily, he nodded his acknowledgment as he ran his fingers over the heads of his bevy of blue eyed girls. Soon his merlings were popping up out of the water as well to peer curiously at the little harpies, whose heads were for the most part not that much smaller than theirs.

Beaming at the youngsters as they investigated each other as well as they could given their different elevations, Mathias started to say, “Merlings meet your…” only to stall out as he realized, if they slipped and told someone about their sisters it would raise even more questions he could not safely answer than anything else.

Deflating, Mathias let out a sigh and corrected himself to say, “Merlings, meet your new friends.”

Cora gave him a sadly understanding look as she and Callie jumped into the water, causing a splash big enough to startle the fledglings into the air. The merlings disappeared under the water briefly before coming back up near the adult harpies and calling out to the other youngsters to come play with them.

As they flew over to circle curiously around their aunts, Mathias wiggled onto land to sit beside Clara and watch with her. After mere moments of companionable silence he abruptly spoke up to say, “Sorry I wasn’t more help with naming them.”

Shrugging, she wrapped a wing about him pulling him closer as she pointed out, “Most harpies don’t get help from the dad. Besides, I think Marina is an awesome name.”

Chuckling, he snuggled up to her as he shyly admitted, “It’s the name I would’ve gone with if I’d grown into a mermaid.”

Cackling briefly, she gave him an amused look as she incredulously asked, “You would’ve named yourself after a harbor?”

“It’s a pretty word,” Mathias said with a stubborn pout, “and harbors are safe.”

Humming an agreement, Clara nodded as she replied, “Yeah, true, that’s why I named the first hatchling that.”

Happily, he nuzzled into her neck as they fell into a companionable silence. It amazed him how much he had missed her when they had only directly known each other for one day.

The peace was broken when one of the fledglings swooped into the water after a merling and all of the adults lunged towards them in a panic. Before anyone could move very far, however, she was flying back up and out, water rolling off of her wings like it would a duck’s.

Mathias remembered what Cora looked like after her dunking, and was the first adult to stop staring in stupefaction and bemusedly ask, “Is that normal?”

The three harpies shook their heads in unison but it was Callie who dazedly answered, “Never heard of it before.”

Getting a visible hold on herself, Clara called out, “Girls, your feathers are still growing in, don’t catch a chill.” But even with those words of warning the adults all relaxed a little bit and watched as the merlings jumped out to briefly join their sisters in the sky while the fledglings swooped down to skim over, or even dip briefly into the water, wanting to join their siblings.

Eventually Mathias broke the silence once more to ask, “It keeps slipping my mind, but did Tito ever decide to spar with some of the harpies?”

Surprised, Clara simply blinked at him for a minute before confusedly replying, “I would’ve thought he already told you.”

Shrugging, he morosely pointed out, “Only time we’ve had the privacy that he could do so in, I was either asleep or had more distressing things on my mind.”

Furrowing her brow worriedly, Clara slowly nodded her understanding before answering his earlier question, “Well, it took him several tries but he did eventually knock someone up. She laid five eggs. They’re just waiting a lil’ longer before someone asks him if he wants to do it again.”

After that they settled into trading stories about their youngsters and painting a decent picture of how their days typically went.

“Going back to this kelp forest every night sounds like hell itself,” Clara remarked dryly.

Giving a one shouldered shrug, Mathias evenly replied, “I no longer need help to enter.”

Huffing, she rolled her eyes as she groused grumpily at him, “That doesn’t mean it’s any better, just that you’ve learned to endure.”

Nodding, he gave her a brief kiss on the neck as he admitted in a soft sad voice, “I actually miss sleeping in the desolate coral.”

Nodding to herself, Clara muttered about various ways that they could catch and disembowel the bitch if they could just lure her close enough to the surface.

Her words of violence brought a certain warmth to Mathias’ heart and he startled himself by letting out his first carefree laugh in ages.

Clara’s voice petered out as she stared into his mirthful face, and then her lips were crashing into his as her little hands tangled into his hair. Surprised, Mathias nevertheless reciprocated by cupping her cheeks and eagerly exploring her mouth.

When she moaned into his mouth, his whole body shuddered in anticipation and arousal and he quickly slapped a hand over his slit before anything could emerge. Flushing, he pulled away and glanced nervously over to where the fledglings were taking turns resting on their aunts’ shoulders.

Following his eyes, Clara let out a soft snicker before calling out, “Can you gals keep the kids occupied?”

Turning to look at them, the other two took in Mathias’ flushed face and belly, and exactly where he was pressing a hand into and with a smirk chirped out in unison, “No problem.”

Rolling her eyes, she called out a grateful, “Thanks!,” before she muttered to Mathias, “You know, they practice that creepy human twin thing.”

He let out a small nervous laugh before glancing towards their daughters once more and asking worriedly, “But aren’t we still a little too exposed?”

She looked over consideringly as well, and then let out a decisive, “Alright,” before swiftly straddling Mathias and hooking her arms under his armpits to lift him up.

Squeaking once more, his arms flew up to wrap around her neck as she whispered into his ear while dragging him off into the bushes, “I’ve been without dick for far too fucking long. Do you wanna help me out?”

Planting enthusiastic kisses along the line of her jaw, Mathias breathed out an eager, “Yes!”

Clara deposited Mathias against a tree and bit into his neck as she told him in a soft growl, “The women at the rookery are nice, but they’re too sweet. Show me how wild and savage you can be.”

He shivered in pleasure as he looked over her shoulder to make sure they were sufficiently screened. Satisfied with what he could see, or rather not see, he trailed his hands down Clara’s torso to grab her hips as he hooked his tail around the tree he was leaning against. Then, before she could bite him again, Mathias twisted his whole body so that her hips were pinned a couple feet off the ground against the tree, his face level with his hands.

Letting out a low growl of his own, he stared up at the startled harpy for a moment from under hooded eyes before burying his face into her feathered nethers.

Digging her talons into the soft leaf strewn earth, she tilted her hips to help him find just the right spot faster. Mathias could not help but chuckle as she moved. Shuddering Clara moaned out, “Goddess, yes, laugh more.”

Smirking, he let out a purposeful laugh as he twirled the tip of his tongue around her clit. Her hips jolting within his grasp, she panted out, “Fuck! You have the best tongue.”

Tracing her ridges and playing with her button, Mathias listened to the music of her gasps, moans, and curses. Then once he’d worked her into a proper lather, he nosed further back and thrust his tongue into her tight cloaca.

With Mathias’ nose grinding into her clit and his tongue wiggling and exploring her cunt, Clara curled forward and dug her blunted talons into his shoulders. His grip tightened on her hips, keeping them safely pinned as he drove her to a loud wing beating orgasm.

He kept the panting harpy pinned as he nosed his way up to her lowest pair of teats. He had yet to allow himself to take a proper look at them, but he took a moment to do so as she slowly pulled herself upright.

Watching the swollen teats sway under her rounder breasts in time with her heavy breathing, Mathias let out an appreciative growl and latched onto the nearest one. Squealing, she arched into him as his hands released their grip to travel up and down exploring the boundary of skin and feathers.

Only the barest trickle of milk dribbled into his mouth, but that wasn’t the point, the point was to lave his eager attention onto the enlarged stiff nipples and puffy darkened areolas.

Reaching up to roughly fondle her boobs, he pulled off of her lowest nipple with a loud pop before moving onto the next to the sound of Clara’s stifled moans.

Slowly he moved up her body, teasing and tormenting her nipples along the way with varying lengths of intense suction. When he reached her boobs he slid his hands up over her collarbones and neck to cradle her ears as he subjected those nipples to the same torment that the other six had enjoyed.

Finally, gripping his wrists with sudden ferocity, Clara spat out, “Fucking… fuckity fuck Mathias! Fuck me already!”

As he kissed his way up along the same path that his hands had taken, his voice rough, he mused, “Fuckity? That’s a new one.” Before she could reply he captured her lips, plundering her mouth with his tongue. His claws teased down her neck before he pinned her little arms to her wings and her wings to the tree.

He simply enjoyed the desperate happy sounds issuing from her throat and the feel of her body against his own as she struggled against him for a bit. Mathias then released Clara’s wings and arms to dig his claws into the tree above her head and using a combination of pulling with his arms, and pushing with his somewhat eel-like tail he maneuvered himself into position.

As Mathias plunged in they both gasped and leaned into each other for a couple minutes. Then he readjusted his grip to a more comfortable spot for staying stable and rested his chin on top of her head as he rapidly and roughly undulated in and out.

Scrabbling at his back, Clara breathlessly mumbled and moaned as she alternated kissing and biting his neck, which only served to draw great shuddering moans and groans out of Mathias as he fought not to cum in her quite yet.

Finally with a wild cry, she spazzed against him, her wings flapped wildly and her cunt clenched down, so he allowed himself to press forcefully against her and cum with his own nearly soundless cry. Afterwards, he carefully slumped back into the soft grass and dirt, keeping a careful grip on Clara as he simultaneously made sure that he didn’t land too hard for himself.

Once they had settled, Clara experimentally tried to pull off, only to quickly settle back down with a self satisfied smug expression when she couldn’t.

Watching her, he could not help but let out an amused laugh as he caressed her legs and teasingly asked, “Is it everything you wanted?”

She seemed to ponder this question quite deeply before firmly nodding and agreeing, “Yep, can’t wait to do it again.”

With a smile that did not seem able to leave his lips, Mathias shook his head and responded, “Another day, perhaps.”

“Alright,” Clara agreed smugly and settled more firmly into his lap as they got to chatting once more.

They got so lost in getting properly reacquainted, or just acquainted perhaps, that they didn’t even notice when his penis slid back into its slit. It wasn’t until an amused and exasperated voice called out, “The girls are getting a little hard to keep corralled here!” that they exchanged sheepish grins and separated.

This time though, Clara crouched down, and Mathias climbed onto her back to be half carried back to the water.

Once they finally parted for the evening, Mathias still could not wipe the smile off his face.

Chapter 49

Somewhere deep down, Mathias had expected things to get better after seeing Clara again. And in a way they did, being around her and their daughters brought a certain lightness to his life that simply made things more enjoyable. On the other hand, it made going back to the kelp forest, and especially to Chloe even more intolerable. So on the whole, it did not feel like anything was really getting better, especially since he still did not see the harpies more than once or twice a week.

Time passed like this, with impossible highs followed nightly by intolerable lows. The only thing that kept him living was his merlings, and the only things that kept him sane were his brothers and, especially, the harpies. For most of another year nothing changed…

~~~~~

Before he even opened his eyes, Mathias felt that something was off. It took him only a moment of thought to realize that two of his merlings were not with him. Lifting his head from the hip of the soundly sleeping Tito, he took a quick look at the merlings still snoozing with them and realized that it was Curious and Shadow that were missing.

After he roused the youngsters and got them to hold onto his back, which had become much harder to fit them all on in recent months, he swiftly moved towards the feeling of the missing two, managing to summon up a small bit of gratitude through his overwhelming worry that they were together at least.

Although it looked slightly different in the current lighting, he recognized the area that he arrived at as the place his family held their nightly gatherings. He stopped at the edge, relaxing slightly as he watched his mother show the two youngsters how to safely handle and disassemble a prickly green sea urchin.

Happily, he remembered his mother teaching him this same thing when he was around their age, however before a smile could fully form on his lips he noticed movement from a different direction and looked over as the pair’s heads were also turning.

At the same time as he noticed Chloe, entirely too close to his merlings for comfort, Shadow scooped up hir now spineless urchin and eagerly brought it over to show hir mother. Ze was most likely hoping for some of the same affection and praise that ze’d gotten from everyone except hir mother.

Blanching in terror, Mathias let out a quick, “Come here, danger!” whistle as he darted towards his errant offspring. That was very likely the only thing that saved hir life.

Mathias watched as time slowed down, to show him every excruciating detail of Chloe’s eyes going from the mermaid who dared teach something to her merling, to the round ball that was being offered to her. Her expression screwed up in complete outraged rejection as her hand swung back and around to knock the urchin flying.

Her claws would have also been on target for the not quite three year old's neck, had Mathias’ whistle not had Shadow turning without conscious thought and heading towards hir father. As it was, the claw caught the little merling just under the ribs, and continued halfway down hir tail.

Shadow’s loud cry of pain and fear had everyone going still for a moment, except Mathias, who scooped up Curious and then as he reached hir, Shadow. Only then did time resume its normal flow for him and he continued to flee while clutching the two to himself, his mother’s enraged screams soon followed by his sister’s rang through the kelp forest.

It was not until the kelp forest was not even a visible dot, that he slowed down his headlong flight and stopped to take stock of his little one’s injuries.

Curling his tail to make a platform to lay Shadow on, Mathias ignored the fact that he was slowly sinking as he checked hir over. He was slightly relieved to see that only one of Chloe’s claws had connected well enough to need stitching.

Grabbing one of hir little hands with its needle sharp claws, he placed it over his side and said softly and calmly, “We’ll get you stitched up, like I do to myself when… I need you to squeeze when the pain gets to be too much to breathe through. Until then, I want you to breathe in as I count to eight, and then breathe out as I count to eight. Got it?”

At hir whimpered nods, Mathias smiled reassuringly and arranged a couple of other youngsters to help hold hir still and started counting as he prepared the needle and thread and stitched her up.

By the time he finished, they had nearly reached the seabed, and his side had several little pinpricks. Mathias was mildly surprised that the blood had drawn no predators in but he decided now was not the time to question it and so as he cuddled and comforted Shadow he asked his youngsters, “Where is your mother?”

For the first time, he was met by a crowd of confused looks at the question. He let out a sigh of relief. Relief tinged with guilt, true, but real relief nonetheless. He did not feel that they were safe quite yet though, so after polishing his needle as best he could and reattaching it to his ear, he called the uninjured nine onto his back and cradled Shadow to his chest with one arm. Then he chose a new direction, and continued to swim.

~~~~~

Sophia was having a really good morning. Her mate woke her up with the sweetest of kisses. Her younger merlings wanted an extra hug and kiss before they went off with their father. And her elder merlings were telling her all about what their cousins had done the night before for the third or fourth time as she escorted them out to where their school would be gathering.

She was having a really good morning, that is until she heard the one whistle that she had never expected to hear in the kelp forest.

Stopping on the spot, she blanched as she could think of only one person who would even think to use that whistle here, and the situations that he would do so in were very few and far between.

Quickly, she snapped out to her merlings, “Go find your father and hide out in the coral today!”

As she hurriedly swam in the direction the whistle had come from, with only one brief glance back, they didn’t argue or follow. For once they did as they were told without question, for which she could only be grateful. Because shortly after that whistle rang out, she could hear her own mother’s enraged scream.

Passing by Mathias, who was swimming blindly in nearly the opposite direction, her nose flared as she took in the scent of blood. It had a slightly sweeter scent than Mathias’, whose blood she had become distressingly familiar with. With that, all the pieces fell into place and she let out her own enraged growling scream and found another burst of speed as everything took on a slightly reddish tinge.

Somehow she arrived before anyone else, and somehow she retained enough control to just watch for a moment.

The thing didn’t seem like she’d ever been in a fight that she hadn’t been allowed to win, whereas Sophia had never been in a fight where she was allowed to win, not even with her own clutchmates.

For the last few years, Sophia had often wondered if Chloe might’ve been behind the untimely demise of some of her and Mathias’ schoolmates, particularly her own siblings that suddenly disappeared. But from seeing her current fight, she now rather doubted it.

Still, Chloe was scoring more hits than Sophia liked, and this needed to be over. Before someone who would intervene, even in favor of the one who would harm her own merling, arrived.

Sophia had kept in control, and taken her moment to watch the fight. She had watched like a predator. Finally spotting an opportunity, Sophia darted forward. She grabbed a fistful of hair in one hand, clamped the claws of the other over the wretch’s shoulder and wrapped Chloe’s tail with her own, reinforcing the grip her mother had already established on their foe. With Chloe’s mobility all but shut down, the older mermaid was then able to shift her tail upwards and squeeze, putting distracting pressure on Chloe’s guts.

Once Sophia’s grip was as secure as she could get it she wrenched her fistful of hair back to fully expose the neck of the enraged, confused mermaid between her and her mother. Neither mother or daughter noticed nor cared that Chloe was still landing hits upon their torsos and arms. Sophia stared dispassionately into the eyes of her brother’s tormentor as their mother finally took hold of her throat and sliced it to ribbons.

Once the corpse stopped twitching, Sophia finally allowed some emotion to return to her face. She looked to her mother as they both ignored the hushed crowd that was slowly gathering and asked, “Should we go after Mathias?”

Shaking her head slowly, Felicitas evenly said, “It is best not to drag him into a war zone. Without her dragging him down he’ll be fine until it is safe for us to go find him.”

Hardening her face, Felicitas turned to the crowd to tell them of a merling who was simply seeking hir mother’s approval. How that mother showed that she would not stop at abusing her mate.

Epilogue

Felix looked over the seven merlings who were following close to his shadow. His sister Sophia had lost her mate in retaliation after she and their mother had killed Chloe. But at least the merman had managed to successfully protect all of his offspring, even if it had cost him his life. It had taken months for the full backlash of that day to play out, ending with their mother having taken over the pod. They hadn’t lost anyone else since.

Between Sofia and her late mate's siblings, Felix was the one who had the least amount of merlings of the same age, so he willingly took on the duties of daytime father and nighttime uncle to Sophia’s brood.

Letting out a tired sigh, he cast his gaze over his brothers as they approached the boulder. With the exception of any brothers among the batch of merlings that had fled with their father, they were all with him, even Romulus whose mate had not gone gravid that year due to stress. Well all of them except Darius, Tito and of course Mathias.

Sophia and a handful of their cousins had been sent off to fetch their fathers and younger cousins from where they had been waiting. Everyone agreed that Sophia needed her father’s comfort and would be quite useless until she got it. Besides, they should, according to his mother, be back by nightfall, midday the next day at the latest. Felix was quite curious to see them again as most of the merlings that left would be adults by now.

Tito and Darius had gone off seeking Mathias. Tito had an idea as to where Mathias might’ve gone, but he refused to tell anyone or bring more than Darius with him.

It was hard to let them go. Tito was so small and weak that surely he’d never be able to make the journey alone, and Darius had saved so many mermen’s lives with the skills Mathias had taught him that no one wanted to see him go even for just a day or two.

Felix however, had the feeling that if they hadn’t let them go, they would’ve just snuck off without anyone knowing.

Shaking his head at the thought, he felt the shadow of his normal sardonic smile tug upon his lips and told his brothers to stay and wait for him for a moment.

He tried to get his and Sophia’s merlings to stay as well, but they were having none of it and just clung to him tighter as he tried. Finally he gave up and swam over to that boulder with the merlings in tow, that same rock he had teased his brother about so long ago.

It took him a bit of hunting, but eventually he found what he was sure was the proper rock and cleaned it up before going to place it just so on the boulder.

Rejoining his brothers once more, he sourly grumped at them, “You know that the merlings won’t be able to eat here, you guys should at least take them to the drop off.”

Romulus, who kept refusing to believe that he didn’t need comforting, draped an arm over his shoulder and said, “Our mates will bring us food.”

Felix scowled off into the distance, still keenly feeling the loss of his mate. They might not have been in love, but they had been best friends. He muttered, “Those of you that still have mates.”

“Sorry about Ellie,” Romulus murmured mournfully.

It finally hit Felix that while he had lost a mate, his older brother had lost all but one of his clutchmates, the siblings he was closest to. And so he might be projecting, just a little bit. With a sigh, he let his head fall onto his brother’s shoulder, letting him draw comfort from giving it.

Slowly the cuddle pile grew, but before the mermaids could show up with food, a pair of shadows circled overhead three times and flew off. Felix perked up, but stayed put until a single shadow started to circle overhead. Then he wiggled free and swam over to the boulder without even bothering to tell the merlings to stay behind this time.

Popping out of the water at the top, he stared at the aged harpy. She had lines in the skin around her eyes and lips, and gray streaks in her black hair. She stared suspiciously back until the merlings popped up around him, then her gaze softened and she asked before Felix could loosen his tongue, “Where has Mathias been?”

It had been several months, of course they were worried. Shaking himself out of his stupor Felix explained, “He fled the same morning that Mom and Sophia killed his mate. Tito and Darius have gone to see if they can fetch him back.”

She nodded and a small almost lizard-like hand popped out from under her wing to gesture for him to go on. Felix gave her a tired smile and continued, “I came as soon as we were sure that we’d won the civil war to let you know what was going on, and see if you guys could help us work out some treaties with the humans.”

She stared off into the distance for a little while before finally saying, “Call me Helen.”

“I’m Felix,” he answered with a nod.

Once she returned her gaze to him, they settled into an earnest conversation about their current environment, and what kind of relationship they wanted with the humans and harpies around them. At the end of it they had arranged a meeting between their three leaders up the river.

~~~~~

Tito was rather glad to have the big and friendly Darius along with him, although he would’ve been perfectly willing to try and sneak out alone if he had to. Darius was good at following his lead and being as quiet or noisy as he needed to be. Besides, it was hard to find anyone who could say no to that smile of his.

He let out a soft sigh, almost wishing that he could be as cheerful as his brother, but then Mathias used to be almost as cheerful as Darius and that hadn’t helped him any.

Finally they spotted another merman, or rather a pair of mermen. They were hauling a tuna between them, and they had matching nearly black hair and pale skin. But that is where their resemblance to each other ended. One had brown eyes, and the other green. The green eyed merman had streaks of dark blue in his hair and a wild mottling of blue and pink, whereas the other had streaks of royal purple in his hair and a more subdued mottling of purple and pale orange. Clearly this pod was not as old as their own. Tito worriedly hoped that this would be a good thing.

Darius cheerfully called out, “Hullo!”

Curiously, the pair slowed down and looked over to them as they responded in kind.

Catching up with them, Darius chirped out, “We were wondering if you guys had anyone by the name of Mathias or Jennas in your pod?”

Immediately, the pair turned wary and closed off as the purple one stiffly replied, “We can take you to our pod where you can ask our pod leader.”

“Great!” Darius enthused.

As the four of them resumed swimming, now with a more certain direction in mind, Darius kept up his one sided conversation the entire way.

As they approached what Tito assumed was the heart of their pod from the increasingly dense swirl of bright and dark colored merfolk, they reached a point where the other two told them to wait.

It wasn’t long before they were approached by what was quite possibly the oldest mermaid either of them had ever seen. With hair and scales so white that she nearly seemed to glow, she was quite easily older than their late unlamented pod leader had been.

It almost startled Tito, and did visibly startle Darius when she spoke in a soothingly dulcet voice, “I hear you’re looking for someone.”

Hiding his nerves somewhere deep inside, Tito spoke up to say, “We’re looking for our brother Mathias, or his friend Jenas.”

She gave them an ethereal smile as she apologetically informed them, “I’m afraid we don’t have anyone by those names here.”

Tito fell into a thoughtful silence as he tried to figure out how to get them to talk. The reaction of the two mermen earlier was not that of someone confronted by unknown names. And while Jenas was a bit unusual, Mathias was a common enough name that surely they had a couple of men with a similar name at least.

But before he could come up with anything, Darius launched into a long dramatic telling of what their missing brother had been through in the past three years, and then what their pod had been through in the past three months. He ended it with a softly forlorn, “I just wanna know if my brother is okay.”

Tito had been watching this pod’s leader, and the growing crowd around his story telling brother. And the way that adults and merlings alike seemed to lean into her and form an unselfconscious cuddle pile while listening, loosened up a worry in his chest. If this pod were hiding his brother away, it would be alright, he would be alright.

For the first time she seemed sympathetic to their quest as she shooed the crowd back about its business before turning to the brothers once more and sharing with them, “Not too long ago one of my grandchildren left to go traveling with a friend of his. I often wonder where they are and what they’re up to. However, I have to keep myself content with the thought that as long as those boys stick together, they should be alright.”

Darius didn’t seem content with this answer. Tito however thanked her and yanked on his brother’s arm, softly reminding him, “We should get back to mom before she worries too much.”

“Alright,” Darius sulkily grumbled as he followed his brother away.

Once they were a sufficient distance away to ensure privacy, Darius asked, “So what are we going to tell mom?”

Tito replied with a shrug, “The truth, he’s safe with a friend and doesn’t want to come back.”

As Darius thoughtfully nodded Tito grinned a bit rakishly, as he remembered some ladies that he hadn’t dared visit in months and so he blurted out a question to his usually more impulsive brother, “Do you want to go play with some harpies with me?”

At first Darius brightened up and looked like he might just agree, but then his face fell and he shook his head letting out a regretful, “No, I’d be afraid of forgetting how to be gentle. And I still want to have merlings someday.”

Chuckling, Tito nodded and patted his shoulder as he agreed, “That is a valid concern.”

And so, unsatisfied but relieved, the brothers went home.