The sleepiness started to faze when I felt a sudden burst of cool force jolt against my side, a throbbing ache in my tail and a pounding in my head. Was I dying? Is this what death feels like? No, it can't, it'd be much worse.
I felt something...Soft and squidgy rubbed under my neck. I couldn't concentrate, and I felt my own lifeless head roll uncomfortably to the left and lolled to the right.
Is this some sort of dream, is it one of them dreams where it feels so real that you actually fall from your bed?
Then another loop, around my shoulders, my brain said it was rough, but my dazed mind made it feel soft and comfy. And then I felt that cold force zip up my body, giving me chills, a filmy cover over my tail.
What, what was that? Something gripping under my tail.
Buzz, buzz, buzz. It was phased a little way away. It was close, though. I heard it. Then the piercing sound of a slam.
BANG!
It made me flinch awake, my eyes staring up at a blank blue canvas. Little speckles of white here and there and a hue glow of yellow. And I noticed a weird shaped face; it had no eyes and a little stubble. Then I realised it was that lad from earlier!
It was his chin, he was carrying me. It was his warm, fleshy arm around my warm shoulders, his arms under my bent tail. I didn't want him to see me awake, then he'd ask questions, and I was weak as it is. It started to become hard to breathe, already.
I felt him stop, my body jilted to the side that wasn't against him, which I enjoyed. I heard something rattle, then felt my head and back slowly drop backwards. I was falling backwards.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying hard to remain unconscious. Suddenly, an arm was swept upon my back, cradling me once again. Damn, he was good at catching falling girls.
Then I-we-entered a different place, I knew we did. The space felt warmer, much warmer. And I felt cooler. My fingertips were ice cold as I dabbed them on one another without him realising. There was noise. Much clearer than before when I was in a fuzzy state. It was bustling, like the kitchen at the palace. Whispers? No, it was actual talk, conversation, shouting and chilling children screams. It was all muffled, straining my ears I couldn't make out a single thing.
Then I heard close up shuffling, he was moving again. Then I gritted my teeth so not to look pained.
"Jim!" A shrieking woman squealed, I steeled muscles but I still managed to twitch just a little, which I mentally hit myself for. I was jerked into a swerve; I felt my stringy hair slap on my face, which irritated me. "What are you doing with...With her?" To me, it sounded shocked and disappointed, but her voice scared me. I needed to see her face. I pried one eye open but couldn't when he tried to shake my bottom half.
I felt the film over my tail gently slide off the tip of my tail; it was his jacket, yes? When it was off, the warm moisture enveloped it and I felt the throbbing pain in my tail strengthen. I imagined a huge vein pumping wildly at the side, bulging with storm wave speed. I still felt the wounds on my tail, the trickle of blood trail down my tail, drops of blood tickling the tip of my tail.
I heard the softest gasp, ever. It was the woman by the boy's side, and I heard more shuffling. "Mum," The boy's voice was worried; it pained me a little as I tried not to squirm. But now I know who that woman is to this boy, it's his mother. "She's hurt, please just..." As his voice trailed, I breathed deeply to not speak up. "Help me." Dread and struggle, his voice was laced with it.
All of a sudden, I was whisked into twirls, I felt a new pair of hands support my flat, cool back, and warm hands grip my tail and I felt movement again. My hair wisped side to side as it hung. And I was bent; my top half was definitely higher than my tail at an angle.
"Who-What is she?" The woman blurted. Ouch. That really hurt, I was tempted not to bug my eyes at her and flip my heavy tail at her face. Then again, I'd get dropped and probably have my head cracked on the surface of whatever they were carrying me.
"I found her-Well, this kid found her," The boy said. The child, the sweet little boy that told this boy to get me, the little boy that was 80 parts human, and 20 parts metal. The poor child. I believe we were on level ground, because my body tipped and my chest felt align with my lengthy tail. "On the shore down town." The boy finished.
BANG! Sounded like father's power of the trident, how it could crack or explode a simple underwater boulder. And it sounded like a rebound, like whatever was hit, hit something else from impact.
The next thing I know, I was lay upon a plush material. It felt like I was floating on water and I liked it. I didn't so much as roll and crush my head into this softness as they were still in the room. But my tail was still killing me, literally. It was so painful, the pain began to rivet through my spine.
Wherever I was, I still felt the warmth of the area that surrounded me, and the warmth from the bright sun outside. Could I still be out?
"I think she's a siren, or mermaid." The boy pointed out to his mum. Mermaid, I thought to myself and smiled. Then shook my head mentally to wipe it off. I could still feel their stares, so made sure not to flutter my eyes. "I can't take her to the hospital." Hospital? What in the name of Trident is that?
"Well..." I heard knocking on the floor; it went around me on this soft cloud. "Why can't you?" I heard the doubt in the woman's voice.
"Mum, they'd tear her apart." I stopped breathing for a second and determined whether or not to sit upright from the sudden jolt in my heart. "They wouldn't know what to do with her. They'd take her to scientists and experiment on her, probably cut her tail off, then goes into the sea to look for more of...Her kind."
I opened my eyes, and felt them water from how wide they opened from terror. I peered at the woman and lad by the square glass; he was looking out while the woman was looking at him, admiring him, her son.
I felt a ghostly numb sensation around my waist, closing in on my tail. Me without a tail, really! I stirred a little, uncomfortable with the decision I made to come to the land, to make a stupid choice to interact with humans, how reckless I am to think they can help us when they can kill us. Experiment? It sounds horrific, and I don't want to be a part of it.
"Jim, we can't keep her here-"I was scared to think they'd chuck me out, like rotten kelp.
"Mum, we can't chuck her out!" I watched as he flung his arms around as if he were being attacked, I stifled a giggle. "She'd definitely get killed." Okay, that made my giggle and smile disappear. I looked at my sides to see what I was on was some sort of quilt, like the kind I have back home. But mine and my sisters were made up of materials that would float on the surface, like children's clothes that were long gone, and they'd be patched up with others to create quilts.
"You always butt in before I finish my sentences." The woman's face took on an edgy glare towards her son. "No, there are inspectors coming to brief the place tomorrow in the evening." The woman nodded towards me and I quickly shut my eyes, when she carried on talking I knew she didn't spot me. "She can stay until then, but tomorrow, she needs to be hidden elsewhere." I heard the rasp of urgency in that voice, as if I were something dangerous. Or, could I be in danger? I peeped open an eye to watch them, some more. "But now, I can't help you. I have work to do, but I'll get B.E.N up here." Ben, who's Ben? I hope he's not some creepy looking thing like the slug monster at the place where the boy first seen me.
The woman started moving, and I closed my eye like it had never been slightly cracked open once. I heard the knocks, the floor beneath me vibrated and the door she'd come through (which I now realise was the one she banged open) and slammed it shut. The sound of bustling far away was heard.
I heard the boy chuckle, and knew it was only me and him. For now, until that Ben thing/human showed up.
Shall I say something? Shall I talk to him? Or shall I remain dead-like until he decides to wake me up?
Too late, I was already opening my eyes and staring at him. He looked handsome in this light. Down under the sea, there is no natural light. The only light we use is from the palace structure which glows, so mer-folk would be shown in awkward and sick angles of themselves. But we see in the dark, anyways.
I began to sit up, a numb pain in my tail starting to spread like a disease. My hair crumbled on my chest, covering my shell top and falling along my shoulders and draped down my back. Sand now rolled to my sinking weight of the cloud I was on.
Before I could say a thing, the boy's hand that rubbed his jaw came down and his head diverted to me, and his eyes bulged like Sebastian's when I kept running away from home.
"GAH!" The boy collapsed to a nearby seat and I instantly reached out. Ugh, why am I so bad at this? My eyes caught his; shock was flooding them, never minding his heaving chest.
"Please don't freak out!" When I reached my hand out again, a spine breaking pain escalated up my back, electrifying through my nerves and I fell forward, the pain so sick I fell forward and braced myself on my palms like poles. I couldn't describe pain like this. I must've been out of water for about half an hour and a bit until this overwhelming pain occurred. My hair in strings shrouded my face, I tried to speak but it came out so weak. "Please, I need your help." I whined.
He stammered on the word 'I'. "I don't know what to do-"I smiled as his last word came out squeaky, but the pain in my tail was getting more vibrant, like exploding colours in my vision.
"Plea-"I spoke out but when I did, the door boomed open, a gusty force hit me and the smell of brass hit my nose and my eyes watered. A smell I hadn't smelt often so strong and so close tickled my nose.
Then a seaweed thin figure was at the doorway, large blue eyes that changed shape, only in the eyes, a small black dot to look as a pupil. I heard the whir of moving parts, like the boy at the beach, his metal workings snapping to work. It was like this creature before me.
"Jimmy-"He was on his way to the boy, who I thought was Jim, but is now Jimmy. Then the thing's eyes clicked onto me, he jumped and little sheets of metal above his eyes moved up, as if he was in shock. And his eyes didn't change shape, they just...Moved...Inside his eyes. "Yikes, who are you!" His voice a loud, screechy sound. Funny, if I were not in pain.
He came closer, but not slowly to show he was not dangerous to such vulnerability, nope. He came throttling towards me, and I seized back, more thunderous pain sprung in my body, shooting from my tail. I braced myself against more softness, fluffed up rectangular puffiness. But the metal man circled around me, his eyes literally zooming in on me, coming up against my face, the smell of metal more strong and my personal space evaporated.
I peeked at the boy who just relaxed against the chair, his face becoming distraught.
"Don't be afraid." His voice was cool and collected and I relaxed a little, too. My breaths shallower and slower. The metal man called Ben extracted a circle metal disk from his chest, I squeaked and watched in interest as his thin little fingers jabbed away on it. I saw from the sheen of Ben's body that on the disk was something responding to his touch like some sort of screen.
I sat up slightly and watched as Ben tapped away and spotted Jim slowly rising from his seat. He did look uncomfortable, but then again, so do I. He bowed his head as he approached my side; he stood still for a while, his eyes dropping on mine. He began to crouch to my level.
"Do you have a name?" That was a stupid question, we all have names. Even pets do, but he looked earnest, more frightened, but earnest.
"Ariel." I said my own name which sounded weird, but the pain struck again, and it showed in my face as I felt my features scrunch together, and I couldn't be bothered to sit up for long and sank back in the softness of the rectangular puffiness. I felt the tug of my hair buried under my back around my neck, and down my cool front. He just stared at me, as I turned my head lazily towards him, who rested his head on his hands, and his hands rested on the cloud. "What's yours?" Again, my face squinted in pain, my throat cracking like the ground under water when bubbles of air escape.
"Jim." His eyes ever so slightly moved to Ben, then mine again, and the stayed.
The tapping was still frantic was beside me, but I couldn't care, because his eyes were staring into mine, and I couldn't break the connection. My eyes kept closing, no matter how much I was alive and awake in my body, my brain was telling me different. My eyelids kept fluttering, and my chest slowly going up, and quickly going down. The pain quite numb that I couldn't feel it anymore.
I reached out my hand, which looked paler than usual, and it connected to his. And he jerked back as if I bit him.
"Are you meant to be this cold?" I checked my metal self. No, I'm warm blooded; I'm warm, aren't I? I'm sick, no. I'm dying; the pain was all too real in my tail, my system.
"I'm warm blooded." I managed to crack out, even hearing myself sounded unnerving.
"B.E.N, what's wrong with her!" His voice sounded so loud, even when I know he wasn't but it sounded like a thunder clap in my ear drum.
"She's a mermaid, Jimmy." Ben reported back, and I was just struggling to keep awake as I felt like my whole body was shutting down on itself. "She thrives underwater, surviving on eating algae and seaweed, most likely with many others and has this fish like tail that is like another life, another heart for them-"
"Alright, alright," I felt the strain in his voice, the worry. Really, a human worrying about me? That would make me laugh, but even breathing now was becoming unbearable. "But what's wrong with her?" His voice reverberated through me, and I had to close my eyes. I didn't have the energy to move, or to lift my eyelids. Once they were down, they were never coming back up. But I could still hear, I'm not fully dead!
Thinking of that sounded mad.
I heard Jim beside me move, while he climbed on the cloud by my side, I felt the weight of the cloud dip under his weight. It was cute, yet unsettling. I could still smell the metal Ben, even Jim, who smelt like the sea. I could still hear the sounds, and I could still feel. I was like a living thing in a shell. Oh my gosh!
"Damn, Ben what's wrong with her?" Hysteria thickened his voice, it was frustrating because I wanted to say 'I'm alright', totally the opposite, but I was already worrying him so much. He really was scared for me...
"Jimmy, mermaid's can only survive for so long on land without sea water on their tail-"Ben spoke up, but he didn't finish. All of a sudden, I felt the thrash of skin against skin as Jim roughly grabbed under my back and tail, hefted me up and rushed. He was carrying me through a door, even unaware of it; I could feel the closeness of the wall as we passed through that door.
The hollow thuds of his boots on the floor were like a vein pump in my skull. He was so quick; my arm to the side was skimming off the wall. I knew we entered another room, because it was cool and it smelt funny. Like water, dirty water. Then I was placed on the floor, no, my arm was hanging off the edge until Jim's warm hand placed it back to my side. But, damn! This was freezing!
The next sound was hard to describe, but it was thrashing down, like...Water against an object? Then the cool atmosphere was getting stuffy, so I'm guessing it was warm water. Oh, I haven't been in warm water since last year. And the feel of it fluttering around was soothing.
More thuds on the floor, then I heard a screech, guessing it was Ben. It was hard not to see them, but only hearing their conversation. Did...Did Jim think I was knocked out, or something? I giggled in my mind, when this really wasn't the time. I am virtually on the brink of death, sort of speak.
"She needs sea water on that tail straight away, Jimmy, or she'll start drifting in and out of consciousness." The metallic churns of the metal Ben was distant, but his words were more sunken. This is what I'm doing, drifting in and out.
"Alright, B.E.N, get me some salt from the kitchen." Jim put orders on metal Ben, like father would to me. Suddenly, I felt lighter. No longer with the heavy feeling in my eyes, I managed to tense my jaw, feeling my ears move. I tried to open my eyes, or part my lips. But no such luck. "Now!" Jim burst, and I fluttered my eyes open to see him looking down on me, but once my eyes were open, so was the pain. This time, amplified.
"Ah!" It was like a grunt, but I could feel the surface I was on, where my shoulder blades dug into the firmness of the floor or bench I was on.
"Don't move." He pressed on my shoulders, which made me wince, since he was actually making the pain more hurtful. He let up, thankfully, I felt like swearing for a second, there. "I'm going to help you."
H-Help? Really? I felt a sheen sheet come over my eyes, but I couldn't cry now. It was too much of a joyous moment; a human actually wants to help me. A human, who my father said were dangerous, not trustworthy, wanted to help me, and in my defeating state. I tried for a smile, but I felt my dried out lips crack under pressure, I was worried in case blood spilt.
Seconds later, I heard the stomps of metal Ben rush through the room, which was now filled with heavy warm moisture. Even that helped with the pain.
I heard something faint, like something dripping onto water; it was hard to make out from the crashing of water, still.
I kept my eyes open as Jim gently picked me up, his fingers digging in my sides; I think to keep me awake. He stopped when he turned around, the moisture now thickening my tail, I could feel it. Then the smell hit me, I felt my senses kicking up, it was seawater. My heart thudded now, and I was excited. But Jim was just staring down, not on me, but something beyond me.
The soft thud of something hitting the deck and it felt as if Jim became smaller, then it felt even weirder when the wall above me became shorter. Jim was going down something, because I felt the condensation of water hit my back, even glistening on my tail, droplets already forming it made me shake.
"Jimmy, are you sure you wanna get wet?" Metal Ben screeched out, his high pitched voice making me want to talk to him, his cheerful tone was so inviting.
"I'll have to get used to it." Straight away I knew he was referring to me, the reason he will get wet. But 'used to it'? Like I want him to get wet because of me all the time, seriously?
Jim then looked down on me, and I could see his glitter of a small smile as he loosened his arms, I was scared for a moment, because I thought he was going to dump me somewhere far below me. But my skin was enveloped in water, salty water. Like fish to food I knew what was happening to my body. It needed this, my tail revitalizing itself, my hair soaking up, too, like a blood cape around my small head. And my skin taking up the water like a good drink, and I felt warm, the pain quickly dispersing and the throb in my tail was completely gone.
I looked up at Jim after closing my eyes in bliss, and I seen from his expression that what was happening was a good thing.
I couldn't contain it, I was so happy that I used the water to thrust me onto Jim, colliding into his body that made a hollow boom, like he hit something hard. I wrapped my arms around his neck, snuggling my face into his. I didn't want to move, actually. I was enjoying this a little too much. Even if Jim smelt like sea water, he also smelt like something exotic, that I had never smelt before.
"Are you crying, Ben?" A low funny chuckle came out of metal Ben from the side. Which is when I realised I was in some sort of tub, the white walls around me, another tub at the far end of the room and this was like a hole in the floor, because this tub was in line with it.
"No," He retorted. "I just got some speck in my eyes." Jim's hands were loose on my sides, but I felt the flinch when he accidently touched the slick fin around my waist that was connected to my tail.
"Are you okay, now?"
"Yes." I cheeped, leaning back and fully taking in this boy called Jim. I didn't realise, out of all the times he's carried me, that his skin was delicate. "Wow, your skin is just like mine!" I wasn't as interested in his skin, rather his hair. It was long at his sides, but he had this fluffy texture to it. Not anymore, once I ran my damp fingers through it. "Your hair is so soft." I giggled, and finally, picked at what he was wearing.
Male mer-folk under the sea don't need any shell tops, unlike women. But males just naturally have their torsos out. Not like it's a bad thing, but sometimes you get the odd plump man, even woman.
"What is this?" I knew what it was, it was his shirt, but the material was even soft. I pulled at his shirt, its durability was strong, but his hands covered mine. I looked down on them, they were rough yet smooth looking, and very bigger than my own small hands.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," He giggled, but he looked troubled. "I'm wearing clothes," I knew that, I felt like thwacking his head. "What you're..." He nodded towards my chest, and finally used a hand and gestured to my shell top, which wasn't always comfortable. "Like you have...On." He stared for too long, and a playful half smile automatically played on my face and he shook his head and looked at me.
"My shell top?"
"Yeah, so wait," His hands went up, flat in between our faces. "You seriously haven't been around someone?" He found it hard to believe. He must've known a great deal about mermaids, well, I know he doesn't. Since poor metal Ben had to give him all the answers.
I didn't want to be sarcastic or stupid either. "Around someone human." Instead, I made it easier for him. I stopped fiddling with his clothes and my eyes met his, they were an intense blue. Mine were bang blue, but wow, his eyes were...Blue, like when my father makes lightening strike from his trident to warn someone, or break boulders, it strikes blue sometimes. So yeah, it was like blue lightening. I felt all mushy, but maintained a serious face. "You're the first human I saw."
His lips began to move, but since he interrupts his mother a lot and metal Ben for that matter, I lifted a damp watery finger and kept his lips together. "I seen you the other day, water fell from the sky, and you were on this high ground. I didn't want you to see me, so tried to swim away." I made a grin; I didn't like my smile, much. He didn't know that.
"So you were the thing I seen in the water..." He was deep in thought, and I believed he meant to say that in his mind, but outspoken.
Thing. Am I a thing? Am I unnoticeable? Nothing? That hug just moments ago felt like nothing now, as to what I'm being referred to. I felt like smacking him. Hard.
"Thing?" I repeated, voice full of hurt.