The sound Nia heard was a sound only her and a few mermaids could hear. It was a conch horn, and she perfectly knew who was on the other side of it. Nemalion was looking for her. Obviously, she had realized her sister had been missing for more than one hour, and probably she hadn’t found her where they usually met up halfway between the reef and their home.

Nia started to nervously contort her hands, her fingers almost hurting as she did so. Oh no, oh no. What do I do?

Not responding to that call was going to make her sister worried, and could have resulted in more people involved. But letting her know where she was, was going to be dangerous for her. She didn’t want the human to see more of them. She preferred for him to think there was just one random mermaid there.

She was breathing heavily and probably looked very distressed, so much the human crawled right in front of her, looking directly into her eyes “What’s happening? Are you feeling unwell?” he asked. She shook her head and sighed.

Saving him, or protecting her sister? Both things looked impossible anyway. She had to act quickly, she had to decide.

Another call was heard and this time it sounded more desperate. If she kept doing so some other mermaids were going to notice and be alerted. Her hands were shaking, she looked at the man with sad eyes. He looked so beautiful and so kind. She reached out and caressed his warm face, even if he was starting to feel cold to the touch. Why do all that if she was going to let him die?

Another deep breath and finally she made up her mind. “I have to ask you for a huge favour,” she started, and Brendan sat down straight nodding “I need you to go the farthest away from me, to that side… and lure them to you. I need to enter the water. I will be very fast I promise,” she was well aware that she sounded very untrustworthy, yet the human didn’t flinch.

“Oh ok. Have you thought of a way to save yourself? Will you be able to escape if I do this?” he asked instead. She shook her head.

“No, I won’t abandon you. I only need one moment. Try to bear with the pain for a short while. Use your good arm as less as possible!” she tried to explain as she moved slightly away from the man while he did the same. They were both at one end of the small cave and even if it was very narrow, there were maybe two good meters between them. They made sure the creatures didn’t realize something was going on, and then they both nodded, ready to start with the plan.

Nia reached up towards her left ear, in her hair decorations she had a small conch, she looked at it and sighed again. Then she nodded towards Brendan once again and watched as he reached down into the water, bubbles already surrounding his arms. The man had pain all over his face yet he still did as he was asked.

She quickly bent down till her head was completely submerged and used all her strength to blow into the conch, breathing through her gills. I’m so sorry Nem. She could have done it for just a few seconds before one of the pests realized she had been underwater too and quickly started reaching out to scratch her and pull her hair. Luckily a strong grip on her waist pulled her out of the water, with only one scratch on her cheek. She grunted but breathed heavily in relief. She was now sitting in between the man’s legs her tail tucked up on the rock surface, with him still hugging her strongly from behind. Brendan was breathing heavily too, resting his back on the rock wall and trying to calm down.

“It was close,” he said and when Nia looked down she saw how his arms and hands were even more scratched than before. Poor man, he had endured a lot. But now maybe they were going to be fine. “What was all that about?” he asked, still refusing to let her go. Nia secretly really liked that situation, she was rarely embraced by a merman, and it felt nice. Or maybe it only felt nice because she liked this one male.

She turned around to get slightly away from him and looked down “I had to call someone,” her hands had naturally moved to rest on the human’s chest and they were now looking at each other in a very intense way. Oh wow, this feeling is new.

It didn’t take much for them to hear a lot of commotion from underwater, with a beagphèist even being thrown out directly towards the rock wall, falling down on the flat surface one meter away from them. Brendan immediately curled up and grimaced, while Nia could only look at all the bubbles until they finally stopped.

A big figure emerged from the water, stretching her arms and then whipping her hair backwards revealing a very angry but incredibly beautiful mermaid. Nia didn’t even have time to speak when she was pulled by her arm and dragged directly into the water.

“Oh my gods! Look at you, all covered in scratches and all dry” Nemalion said, caressing her face and inspecting her skin, trying to see if she had other damage. She even lifted her arms and looked for more scratches “Your precious skin…” she whispered. She was hurt, she was worried and she was mad, yet she hugged her so strongly to her heart. Nia felt completely safe and calm, all her worries being washed away by her sister’s hug. Nemalion had literally just thrown around the creatures as if it was nothing, and they got so scared they quickly disappeared… all but one.

Nia looked at her when they parted, he r big round eyes staring directly into the dark blue pools her sister’s ones were. Without even having to say a word she saw Nemalion rolling her eyes in frustration before she reached for the beagphèist’s tail and pulled it back into the water. More like throwing it deeper. It quickly gasped and swam away. Nemalion looked at her nodding sarcastically and Nia nodded. Thanks. It was true they were pests and they had tried to kill both her and her human, but to see a sea creature gasping for …water, and drying out like that was way too painful. 

Now tho, it was the time to address the huge elephant seal in the room. Nemalion pointed dramatically at the human that was trying to make himself as small as possible, glued to the rock surface.

“Let me explain Nem...” Nia tried.

“Don’t Nem me! You brought him here?” she asked, her voice was shaken.

“Wait, I thought they weren’t going to follow me…”

“You let a human see you!” Nemalion continued, she didn’t even hear what Nia was saying.

“He was in danger,” she tried to explain, but never raising her tone, she was fully in the wrong there, and she had no right to get mad. 

“You should’ve ignored it!” Nemalion said, waving her hands before crossing her arms. And she probably had been looking very angry even to the human, because Brendan finally crawled forward and spoke for the first time.

“Wait, don’t get mad at her, it’s all my fault,” he said. He was so cute, he had no idea what the mermaids were saying yet he wanted to protect her, maybe he thought Nem was some sort of guard or something.

Nemalion gaped, looking at her with disbelief, this human dared to speak to me? Her eyes seemed very eloquent. Nia smiled awkwardly and shrugged. Her sister grunted before reaching out and touching the human’s temple, because yes, the magic only worked if the single mermaid permitted the human to hear her voice.

“I will deal with you later, stay out of this!” Nemalion almost growled. Brendan’s eyes grew larger as he moved back and emitted a very surprised sound. The black-haired mermaid’s eyes grew larger once again “Is he trying to die?” she whispered looking at her sister.

Nia chuckled, she knew what had surprised the human, and it was so cute as a reaction somehow. “Please calm down… he…”

“He is a human! And he shouldn’t be seeing nor hearing us, are you out of your mind? And you! UGH!” She couldn’t even finish her sentence, she could only run her fingers through her thick hair which was now starting to dry up into such gorgeous curls. It was so rare to see her hair out of the water, it was always very wavy, but it became bouncy when dry.

Nia couldn’t help but caress her sister’s hair and then her face “Thank you for risking your life to save me,” she said, feeling incredibly guilty.

“Those things can do nothing against me” Nemalion said flexing her arms, showing off her muscles “No creature can do anything against me if you’re in danger. I was so scared, you weren’t coming back…usually, you just take a quick peek” Nemalion said turning around to look at the human. Brendan was still baffled, staring at them. “I suppose he looks interesting,” she said pinching his toe and pulling up his foot a  little.

“Stop, you’re scaring him… he will think you want to eat him!” Nia said with amusement in her voice.

“Nia only did it to protect me, I’m so sorry…” Brendan said again.

 “You told him your name?” Nemalion asked, she was outraged.

“It’s my fault, I told her mine,” the man said once again and he sounded so cute, so cute even Nemalion’s eyes softened.

“She is my sister, you don’t have to keep protecting me, Brendan. Nem, I didn’t want to call you, I hoped the beagphèists were going to get bored and leave us alone.”

“This is ridiculous, you were going to actually risk your life just to protect him?” her sister asked and Nia shook her head.

“I was going to protect you. I didn’t want you to be exposed to humans too, this is my own mistake,” she explained but this reply didn’t seem to be a good one, nor for her sister or the human.

“Nonsense” they surprisingly both said at the same time, resulting in Nemalion almost jumping out of the water to attack the man.

“What I meant… what I meant was that I offered to sacrifice myself just to save her, I’m doomed anyway so why should she be bitten if she can survive and swim away…” Brendan quickly explained with his hands up in front of him as a  sign of surrender.

“The human seems to be smarter than you. Nia, you could have died here, do you have any idea how I would’ve felt if I knew you died trying to protect me? The human will forget about us, hopefully, your life is worth more than protecting us!”

“What if I misjudged him? What if he is actually a dangerous human? What if the spell doesn’t work and he can remember us? I much rather him think I’m the only mermaid around here,” she explained, voicing out her worries for the first time. She then looked at the human with sorry eyes. It probably sounded so bad because he dropped his shoulders and looked down at this lap. 

“It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have entered the sea today. I should’ve waited for my arm to heal completely,” Brendan sounded very guilty, and once again Nemalion must have found him cute because she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah… indeed! But look at you poor creature, your lips are purple.” Nemalion pulled herself out of the water and sat on the rock next to the man, for the first time revealing her whole body to him, her silver tail shining faintly under the feeble rays of sun that entered the cave. She was big, next to that human, she looked very tall, now Nia could easily see it, and Brendan could too as he shyly looked up at her.

His eyes were sparkling while he slowly inspected her hair and face and chest, going down to her tail.

“You look so beautiful,” he whispered almost blushing again.

“You are confused right?” Nemalion asked chuckling “I look very different from my sister,” she added. She was implying that the human probably had misgendered her, but Brendan surprised them both.

“I had no idea mermaids came in so many different sizes. You look very tall compared to her, and the hair is different too,” he said. Nemalion was taken aback and tilted her head, she couldn’t believe he didn’t mention her lack of breasts at all.

Nia smiled, she was right about him. He had a nice soul. Nemalion looked at her with confusion and Nia just shrugged. Why fix it if it wasn’t broken?

“Are you hurt anywhere human? Only these scratches?” Nemalion asked, she even pulled up his hurt arm, looking at the white rock with a frown.

“I’m fine, they bite me, but Nia stopped the bleeding,” he said, but he looked like he was in pain. Nemalion sighed and using both her hands she just crushed the white cast, earning an audible gasp from both Nia and the human.

Brendan was frozen in place, looking down at his arm. The skin looked bruised, and some algae and other debris had entered the cast scratching his arm. “What…what are you doing?” the man asked, shaking slightly. Nemalion inspected his arm further, scratches had reached underneath what had seemed to be used to protect him, so they could have gotten worse resulting in a very bad infection.

“This is going to hurt,” she then said before pressing her hands on the boy’s arm, strong enough to make him grunt in pain, curling up his toes and clenching his jaw.

Nia got out of the water “What are you doing? You’re hurting him!” she said grabbing her sister’s hands but Nemalion didn't let go. Brendan cried in pain once more before being released and breathing heavily, while he brought his arm to his chest.

“His arm was broken, and all this struggle and movement made the pieces move around, he was going to never be able to recover fully if that thing was still on,” Nem casually said while putting her hair behind her ear, all satisfied by her deed.  Nia sighed in relief. Her sister had to be always so dramatic, why couldn’t she simply explain to them what she was doing instead?

“You… you healed my arm?” Brendan said looking completely baffled, and Nia was too when she went from looking at him to looking at her sister’s face. She didn’t simply align his bones, she really used her powers to heal him. It was…forbidden, well not really but it wasn’t even allowed.

“Just because this way you won’t do this stupid thing again!” her sister didn’t even turn around to look at him bus he was surely so proud of herself. 

“Thank you. I promise I won’t be this stupid again,” he said looking down at his arm, still he couldn’t believe in his own eyes.

“I’ll go retrieve the garbage you let float away for sure. Nia, say bye and bring him back to land. The boy needs water and he needs to warm up,” Nemalion said sounding so maternal before jumping back into the water and disappearing under the surface.

“I am a ma…n “Brendan tried to say but she already swam away. “Thank you…” he added.