Chapter 13: Mermaid Song

Entry 13:
Well, I finally finished covering my first week here after only two weeks of writing. Yeah, this current speed is not going to cut it. I'll have to pick up the pace after I cover the next few events.

Day 8:
In the morning me, Merry, and the two TNA imps, Su and Nip as it turns out, were looking over the town bulletin board.

"Why are we here again?!" Su cried out in boredom.

"Quit whining, it's your fault we're here." I angrily replied as me and Merry looked over the board.

"No it's not!" Nip cried out. "Everything would be settled if you would just do the horse lady!"

"Yeah!" Su continued. "Just start whoring yourself out and we could be rolling in money."

"Absolutely not!" I shouted as I swatted at them. "Out of the question! I'm not even going to consider it!" I would never stoop to such dealings, no matter how much money was involved. "Circumstances lead me to be with Merry and all you TNA imps and that is more than enough. I won't sell my body." I paused as I noticed Merry giving me a loving smile. "W-what?"

"I'm glad you won't sell your body, it makes our time together more special." Merry replies with a bright smile.

I became flustered as she smiled at me, she really is cute. "Yeah, well, my pride is the one thing I will never let go of." I then turned my attention back to the board. The board is covered with town news, bounties, and job offerings. Obviously the highest figures were found on the bounties ranging from a couple hundred to several thousand gold. One older bounty, seemed to be forgotten about, was for an absolutely absurd amount of money, it must have been some sort of joke because I believe two of the crimes listed were lollygagging and whispering sweet nothings to inanimate objects. Regardless, I only had one day and couldn't leave town so bounty hunting was out of the question anyway. However, looking at the job offers didn't offer much hope to my situation. Sure there were some jobs I might have been able to pull off with some trial and error but none would pay the necessary gold in a single day. But as I was contemplating the possibility of making a good impression at one of the jobs and getting an advance, something caught Merry's eye.

"This will work!" Merry shouted with glee as she tore a flier from the board. The flier was about a singing contest coincidentally being held that day, first prize was a hundred gold.

"That's no good, I suck at singing." I said as I looked over the flier.

"Not you silly, me." Merry happily proclaimed. "I love singing! I'm rather good at it!"

The statement caught me by surprise. "Really? How come I've never heard you sing before?"

"Well, I…" Merry fidgets as she became flustered. "…I get embarrassed when I think about singing."

"And you think you can enter a contest?" I retorted. "You do realize it will be in front of a crowd, right?"

"I don't mind singing in front of others." She gave me a nervous smile. "Just in front of you."

"Just me? Why?" I didn't recall doing anything to make her nervous around me.

"When I sing it's about how I'm feeling. That means that if I start singing now it would be about how I feel…" She paused as she became more flustered. "…about you." I wasn't sure how to respond to that so we just remained silent for a while before…

"Great, so big sis will enter, singer her love song about big bro, and win the contest. Easy, we don't have to do nothin'." Nip's prattled.

"But what if no one likes the sappy song?" Su snickered. "What if we fail to make the 20 gold necessary?"

Nip smiled at her sister. "Well then, I guess big bro will end up raped by the horse lady."

"Sound's fun to watch!"

"I know! Wonder if she takes it at her human or at her horse half?!"

"Alright! That's enough!" I shouted at the imps who giggled as they flew out of my reach. They continued to go on and on about how they want to see how she would hold me down, if she would crush me in the process, and which end she would use. FYI, centaurs do in fact take it in their horse end. But I had no intention of confirming that, so I turned to Merry. "Can you win this contest?" I asked, she truly was the only one I could rely on. "I will do my best," was her answer.

The rest of the day was spent with Merry going off on her own to practice because she was to embarrassed to sing in front of me. I actually looked forward to the contest because Merry said I could listen to her at it. Anyway, I spent the time leading up to the contest trying to find other ways of making money, but the bottom line is that the contest was my only hope.

The contest had gathered a fairly large crowd of all sorts of monsters. The contest seemed popular enough to even gather a few visitors from nearby villages. The small town came alive as merchants were busy taking advantage of the crowd to sell their wares. There were a few merchants that were good enough at their sales pitch that it almost made me wish I had money, but being broke really helps with the temptation. Eventually the merchants learned to stop wasting their time on me and I could wait for the contest in peace.

Sadly I don't know what most of the other contestants sound like because I was covering my ears for most of them. It might have been safe but I knew that many monsters traditionally have magic in their songs and, considering there was a mandrake as a contestant, I was not going to risk it. I only heard one contestant other than Merry, it was a siren. Who needs amps? This girl could have deafened me had I been front row. She didn't use any lyrics but didn't really need any, the speed and range of her inflections could rival some guitar solos. And to top it off she was a born performer, dancing around and using her wings to entice the audience to join in on cue. I had to admit that Merry's chances were not looking good.

Merry was after the siren and my ears were still ringing when she took the stage. Merry spotted me in the crowd as I anxiously waited to hear her song and she was silent for a moment, I could tell she was embarrassed. But after another moment to clear her throat she began. How to describe her song? Like the siren it didn't really have words, but it was the exact opposite in terms of tone and tempo. The song carried well but never felt loud and the slow tempo made it very relaxing. I'm no expert on singing but I thought it was very beautiful. And of course there was the emotion she put into it, truly heartfelt. Like a mother singing to her child you could feel the love, pure and unconditional. Is that really how she feels about me? After hearing that song, I took her wish for me to love her more seriously.

After her song was over the crowd, myself included, applauded and cheered at the sweet girl on stage. It seemed that the contest came down to Merry and the Siren and they were given the chance to sing again before the final decision would be made. They both got a drink of water to soothe their throats before preparing to sing again. The siren got to go first and I covered my ears as she took a deep breath but then nothing. Not so much as a sound came out, she would hop around and flap her wings in a panic but nothing came out.

As I was watching this spectacle I heard a muffled laughter behind me. I turned around to see Su struggling to keep her laughter to herself. "What did you do?"

"Who me?" Su could barely speak between her fits of laughter. "I didn't tamper with the water if that is what you asking."

"You didn't." The sneaky little bitch.

She was practically in tears but she still managed to keep quiet. "I did."

I can't say I approved of such underhanded tactics but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. If the imps want to play their tricks and actually find themselves useful for once, I say let them. At least that is what I thought until Merry took the stage and found that she also could not speak. My eye began to twitch, It's a miracle I haven't tried to kill them. "You know, you weren't supposed to spike Merry's drink as well."

"Why not?" Nip playfully asked. "We don't care who wins." At that point Su could no longer contain her laughter and flew off loudly cackling.

With that, the contest was concluded with no encore. They were judged on their original performance with the siren taking first place and Merry getting second. It was disappointing that Merry didn't win but I could not complain because second prize was 20 gold. It would have been nice to have the extra gold but at least I would get out of selling my body. Merry was happy to be able to provide what I needed and I gladly praised her for it.

Before the merchants could get any ideas, we took the gold to Centora. She took the gold and looked at it with a bit of dissatisfaction. She then smiled and asked, "I don't suppose you would want to do it just for fun?" Obviously it was a no. She clicked her tongue and got rather annoyed. "Stingy, I should have asked for a hundred and twenty gold."

"Like I would believe they were worth that." I retorted.

"You too easily accepted twenty gold," she retorted back as she condescendingly crossed her arms, "they were worth six gold a piece max." This girl had the nerve to price gouge while she was demanding someone to pay for something they didn't break. "Well, whatever," she said with a sigh, "a deal is a deal. So what now?"

"Where looking for a boat," Merry interjected, "if you know anyone who has one."

"A boat?" This puzzled Centora. "What's the matter? Can't swim little mermaid?"

"It's not that." Merry glances to me and giggles. "Someone thinks it would be too much trouble to swim us across the bay."

"What? That's stupid." Su stated.

"Why refuse what someone else offers?" Nip asks.

I was not even going to acknowledge such responses from people that are completely useless. Luckily Centora turned out to be helpful as her answer was, "Well, it just so happens that my friend has a boat that might be large enough to fit you all. If you are willing to help out during the rush I am expecting today I would be glad to introduce you. Or of course you could always…"

"Would you drop it already!" I finally shouted.

That night Merry and I assisted Centora at the bar. It was rather busy, many of the visitors for the contest came by to eat and drink. Even the siren came by to showcase more of her talent, it seems she is trying to make a name for herself as a singer and is trying to build a fan base. She really does have talent, if I was in the other world I would gladly download her songs. As for TNA, they were useless as usual but at least they did not cause any more trouble this time. Not because of anything I did, all of my attempts end with them flying out of reach and prattling about how they don't have to listen to me. Merry on the other hand can give one of her motherly smiles and scare the imps into behaving at least somewhat, I really wish I had such a skill.