Goodness, I just realised how Ellen is getting really obsessed with bread. I think I should stop writing about bread now. My own writing is making me feel weird…
Narius hadn't been entirely honest with his friend. He had wanted to be truthful. He always did everything with best intentions. Maybe he caused trouble along the way but it was only for laughs.
This time, he'd overstepped the mark. He should have told Vahri the truth.
He'd been up to the surface before. All through his life during the hibernations, Narius would leave his cocoon empty and spend the months alone in shallower water, keeping out of the sight of whoever was on watch that winter. He'd poke his head above water and watch the people there. He longed to be able to speak with them; to learn their customs and to trade with them. Based on how they valued anything shiny, he imagined the crystal growths at the bottom of the lake would be worth a king's ransom.
But it had come at a price. He'd noticed it earlier that week. His eyes had begun to decompose. Black mould was forming in the middle of his eyes and only expanding the more time he spent in the open air. It was probably a human disease or something that only merfolk could catch. He didn't know. His eyesight hadn't changed yet but he imagined that would change soon.
Narius, however, was not worried about himself. He was more worried for Vahri. This was yet to come for her. He could still tell her, of course. It wasn't too late to save her from the strange infection. Narius would tell her when they met up again later. Right now, he worried about his return to the colony. He didn't want to risk passing on anything to the rest of his kin. He couldn't ever go back, of course. It would just lead to sickness amongst the people that he loved.
He really didn't mean for bad things to happen at all. Life wasn't supposed to be about hurting people. He really had tried to protect them. Hence, why he had not told them about his surface adventures.
Narius sighed. He always got himself into trouble. His mother always told him that he was wasting himself on fanciful exploits of exploration and discovery. She was right. He was intelligent and thoughtful and, although he wouldn't like to admit it himself, quite attractive. He should have found a mate by now.
But that was another issue in itself. Vahri would have been the obvious choice there. Her family always bred hardy children who survived the winters. None of her family had died in the colds for eons, his mother reminded him. But Vahri was his friend. Narius had seen the people on the surface. Their mates were so much closer. It was real love. He did love Vahri but not like that. What he saw in laketown was so strong. Real people who really loved each other and not just because they thought they'd have good strong, children.
He sighed wistfully to himself. Humanity had a lot to offer him. He couldn't help but feel like he'd been born the wrong species. Maybe he'd been a man in his past life. Narius laughed to himself. He'd always wanted to try proper dancing like he'd seen at all the parties he'd observed, where people moved their legs gracefully to a rhythm that seemed so complex it had his head spinning just trying to keep up.
"Humanity would have suited me" he mused to himself out loud.
He liked to imagine the uproar that statement would have caused at home had he said it out loud.
The older merfolk still hated the humans for their forced isolation. They would kill if they could. As far as he was aware nobody had laid their hands on a human.
Narius himself hadn't drowned a person himself. But he'd seen them drown. The first time he went to the surface, somebody had seen him from their boat in the middle of the lake. They'd tipped off their boat in surprise and the cold water sent their body into shock. Narius could do nothing but watch is dismay as the old man had run out of breath on the lake bed. He could have saved the elderly man but then he'd have told the others of the existence of the merfolk and he couldn't risk the safety of his family. Instead he'd let him drown
It had happened 7 times since that day, 60 years ago. 7 more people had gone down beneath the surface and Narius had done nothing. After they were dead however, he'd pulled their bodies onto the shore to be found. They deserved to be lain to rest by their families he'd thought.
He also had compared himself, whilst dragging the bodies onto cold sand, to the legendary Nerthus, the mer-queen who had drowned so many to protect her own family. This sounded ridiculous but if legend was correct and his family were truthful about their origins, he was most likely one of her direct descendants. Very few others could make claim to this other than those in his own family.
Thinking on it more, that was probably the reason he got away with so much. He was practically royalty. Provided Nerthus had even existed in the first place…
Narius sighed to himself and poked his head above the surface. It was fully light and people would be up soon. He'd better go and find Vahri and convince her to return home…
I'm hoping this is a good chapter. 8 is my lucky number so I decided to focus on my favourite character, Narius for this one. Just a bit of exposition for you, really. Nothin' too fancy, like.
Seriously though, he's such a rogue-ish trouble-maker but he has the best of intentions, honest!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy,
Ellie