“I understand you,” she whispered, gathering an audible gasp from the other. “And now you can hear my voice,” she added. Mermaid voices were on a different wavelength and humans were not able to hear them. Only the chanting was audible, but that was only a specific kind. Sea creatures such as mermaids and mermen were able to speak and sing on more than one wavelength, usually, the non-natural one was used for hunting. That was why humans could hear them sing… it was most likely the last thing they could have heard before being killed. But Nia didn’t sing to capture humans, so she never even learned how to.

“Your voice, it’s so delicate” he said looking at her face, then her lips and going down once again before freezing.

“What? Do I have something scary on my chest?” Nia asked, unable to understand what possibly was scaring the other.

“Oh no, nothing scary!” the man fretted to reply waving his free hand “It’s just… your chest, it’s naked,” he muttered blushing once again. Maybe the poor human was coming up with a fever.

“Naked? Your chest is naked too” she asked looking down after pointing at the man’s chest; of course.

“Yes, human women, I mean women usually keep it covered so it is a bit inconvenient to look at a woman’s chest.” As the human explained that, Nia felt a bit uncomfortable, she felt almost guilty towards him, she was maybe putting him in a bad position. She covered up with her hands, never once she had thought about such a thing. “Oh, no please don’t feel burdened. I’m so sorry, I should never impose human standards on you… this is ridiculous. Chests are normal.” the human said softly.

“But I’m embarrassing you…” she whispered.

“Not at all! I’m not embarrassed, I…this is a bit awkward,” he said looking towards a random spot in the rock wall, scratching his nape “you see, humans find chests alluring…pretty… how do I explain it?” he was still refusing to look at her. She got it, and now instead of feeling guilty, she felt amused.

“It is used for mating?” she asked.

“No! I mean…technically it’s used to feed babies… but you are making fun of me, right?” the man had soon realized that the fake innocent eyes Nia was giving him were just that, fake. She grinned.

“We like chests too, we just never care to cover them. You don’t have to worry. Here. I fixed it!” the mermaid said as she pulled her hair to the front, splitting them in half was going to cover her chest perfectly. The man chuckled and nodded. He wanted to look but was avoiding it out of respect maybe.

“You’re making fun of me still? And here I was worried I was looking too much…” he said and scratched his nose. “I shouldn’t be worried about such mundane things when I am in front of a literal magical creature,” he said and this time he seemed to be mostly talking with himself. “It feels all too surreal, maybe I ended up really falling in the water and I’m now in some sort of a coma,” he said that and chuckled nervously.

“Why were you that far from the shore? You don’t even have both your arms!” Nia said, turning around to look at the white cast on the man’s arm. It was looking bad all ruined by water and scratches.

“I haven’t been in the water in days I was missing it so much… I just wanted to feel the water a bit. But then… the current today was surprisingly strong, and I slowly, but inexorably started to be pulled far away. Too bad I cannot really swim with this stupid arm…” the human sighed and raised his immobilized arm, looking at it with disdain.   

“So irresponsible! You were going to die…what if I wasn’t there?” Nia didn’t even realize she was being so direct until she saw the surprise on the man’s face. She looked away and grunted, “You risked your life just to swim a bit on that board…and they were about to eat you alive.” The thought made them both shiver and grimace, something that then made them both laugh.

“I’m so sorry. I was ready to accept my fate… maybe someone was going to find me at some point,  but also some days the currents go back towards the reef… if those things weren’t there I would have figured it out.”

“Yes, I know you are very good at swimming, but please, next time make sure you have all your limbs functioning…” she sighed and shook her head.

“You know?” the man asked uncertainly “What do you mean you know?”

Nia frowned “I saw you swim… ah! Yes, I’ve been just spying on you now and then,” she looked down and started to twirl some hair in between her fingers.

“You did?” the human looked surprised. She simply nodded. “Why? Don’t tell me… you too want to eat me…” his voice was merely a whisper this time.

“Oh my gods no! I don’t eat humans! I was just curious…you seem interesting and, gentle with marine creatures, and you like the sea obviously,” she explained it all but still felt a bit embarrassed to admit it all.

“I had no idea. I never even noticed someone looking at me.”

“Of course, you weren’t supposed to ever find out. We aren’t even supposed to be talking at all,” it was a mess, a real mess. She had no idea how to solve it. The three little monsters were still in the water making it impossible for her to swim out even less to bring him out. And none of them could have sat in there for too long.

She was distracted from her thoughts the moment she saw a hand stretched in front of her “Brendan. My name is Brendan!” the human said. Brendan. She had been spying on him for over one year and for the first time she knew his name. She felt overjoyed, she almost wanted to hug him. Instead, she looked down at his hand and shyly reached out to touch it. It felt like a shockwave traveled between their bodies.

“Nia…my name is Nia,” she said.

“What a nice name. Nia! I love it. But isn’t it dangerous for me to know your name?”

She shrugged “Honestly not really. Supposedly you will forget about ever seeing me the moment you get out of the water. But considering the situation… I really doubt this will be a problem at all,” she was looking at the water next to her. The beagphèists were swimming slightly under the surface, still making noises and waiting for them to make a bad move. They were never going to make it, not if one of them didn’t basically sacrifice themselves.

“Are they going to stay there forever?” He asked.

“No idea, I hoped they were going to get bored quickly, but I think they really disliked my intervention. Usually, mermaids and mermen don’t mess with them. We are generally stronger…I could have taken one, maybe two, but three are too fast and too feisty for me to not get hurt. Ugh I hate them…” she explained. Everything she said seemed so interesting to Brendan. Ah, she loved knowing his name. All the days she had looked at him from afar, he was now so close to her and he looked so pretty, and his body was so warm it was definitely forbidden to even feel like that.

“Oh my god… your skin!” the man said caressing gently her shoulder, then he reached up and even cupped her face “You are dehydrating…it’s all my fault,” he sighed. Nia closed her eyes and leaned towards that touch, despite her knowing she shouldn’t have.

“It’s ok, I can survive still for a while,” she said then she moved the man’s hands away and scooted backwards to lay flat on the rock “If I lay here, the rock it’s wet so I can get some moisture from it,” she said and closed her eyes breathing deeply for a moment. Yes it was bad, she was lucky there was no sun and the air was very wet inside the cave, but it wasn’t enough. Also he was going to be thirsty soon too. I made a mistake, bringing him here was dangerous…maybe I should have fought and made him swim away. But no he was never going to make it.

All of a sudden she felt a splash and some water reached her body. Brendan had crawled towards the end of the rock and very quickly reached down into the water. She sat up and immediately pulled him away “Be careful! Those things can pull you down again!” she shook his arm and he smiled before caressing her cheek with his wet hand.

“I feel horrible, you are in this situation because of me,” he said “Maybe I should just jump in there and help you escape. There isn’t much for me to hope anyway.”

“Don’t say that. I didn’t get myself bitten just for you to give up… These things will get bored and I’m sure we will be able to get out!” She said all that but she was the first one with close to no hope. The little cave had no other openings, there was no rock or weapon, and the opening on top was way too narrow for any human to crawl out from. They were stuck and getting out meant getting hurt.

A thought crossed her mind, but she shook it away by shaking her head. No, that was a bad idea. An absolutely horrible idea.

“Only a few hours ago I thought I was just going to wet my feet in the water, and now I’m here, sitting next to a gorgeous sea creature. Who would’ve thought mermaids were real? I hoped they were but never dared to believe in them…you’re such a fascinating being, so magical. I really can’t imagine being the reason for your pain or worse,” he sounded so concerned and his words just caressed Nia’s skin making her feel warm. She rarely was described as gorgeous and it really affected her, making her feel shy.

~

They were silent for a bit, staring at the water, Brendan felt guilty and probably scared, Nia was trying to figure out a plan. But nothing she thought of made sense. The only possible solution was pulling the creatures out of the water, they weren’t made to breathe outside. But how? Using their arms as bait? Also being pulled into the water was still a possibility and one they needed to avoid. Having such angry things on the small rock was also dangerous, they couldn’t breathe but if they used their claws or teeth they were going to be even more dangerous. The inside of the cave could barely fit her and the human, there was no room for three very angry pests.

She sighed “How long have we been here?” she asked, looking at the other.

Brendan turned around and then looked down at his wrist “I went out around 5 pm. It is almost seven now, I think we have been here for maybe forty minutes, I was stranded for a while…” he looked up at the tiny portion of sky above their heads. He looked pensive.

Forty… forty? Oh my gods, Nemalion will be worried, I would need so much time to go back, and even if I did it now I would’ve been out for so long. She reached up and covered her face with both hands. Her sister was going to be super worried.

All of a sudden she froze. She heard a very distinctive sound coming from the sea. Her eyes widened as she sat up straight. The creatures in the water didn’t seem to be bothered, nor was the human who stared at her with a very confused and worried look.

Oh no.