It took a whole day to convince Berwald to let me go. He kept trying to come up with reasons why I shouldn't go, but I eventually convinced him that I'd be just fine, and that I wanted to go. I'd been worrying about Emil the whole time I was with Berwald anyway, so it would ease my worries to see him, alive and well. And, even if I didn't owe a thing to Lukas, Emil was my friend, the only one I'd really had until I'd been scooped out of the ocean, and he deserved to know that his brother wanted to see him.
When I did finally convince him, he got his fishing equipment ready, then locked Lukas up in the only room we had without windows, Mathias diligently keeping an eye on the door. He promised to stay put, and I was inclined to believe him, considering the favor I was doing him. He'd never find Emil without me, no matter how he searched. I'm sure he knew that too.
But I really wasn't too worried anymore. He'd quickly mellowed out, and it turned out he wasn't terrible company, like I'd expected. Awkward, sure, but not terrible. He and I had things in common that we could talk about, things that no one else would understand. We could speak of life under the water, and of the creatures that dwelled there, without any confusion or need to explain our lifestyle.
Sometimes we'd find ourselves slipping into the old Mer tongue, and would only realize when Berwald gave us a pointed look. I think he might have been a little jealous. Then again, maybe he was just worried for my safety, seeing as, only a day ago, Lukas was trying to kill me. I had to keep reminding myself that.
Still, it was getting hard to hold the grudge. I got the feeling he had a reason for what he did. Maybe not a good one, but a reason is a reason. With enough conversation, I could probably get it out of him, too. But first thing's first; Retrieving Emil.
Berwald brought us to the same cliff where he'd first caught me, and we took a moment to silently reminisce. Then he found us a small cove, and helped me scale down the Cliffside. He checked to make sure that no one was around, then I slipped into the water, sitting near the shore. It seemed to take forever for my tail to form, much longer than it used to.
It scared me to think that I was becoming more human. I hadn't really been paying attention, but now that I thought of it, the amount of time it took to change from legs to my tail had grown, while going from a tail to legs had shrunk. And I hadn't been able to breathe water as easily in my human form lately. I hated to admit it, but I was more human than Mer now.
But I knew better than to be sad about it. I'd already accepted that I'd be living pretty much the rest of my days as a human. And it wouldn't be a bad existence; I'd live with Berwald, whom I loved, and a child that we were going to have soon. And now it would seem that Emil might be a part of my life again. My family was growing, and I was safe as a human. It wasn't a bad life.
Yet, even as I thought that, I had to admit, it felt wonderful to be in the ocean again. I was, in fact, excited to start swimming. It had been so long since I'd been in my home, and it felt so immediately right, I couldn't help but feel a ripping in my heart. I knew, I knew that I'd have to leave it again. And I knew that I wouldn't see Berwald again if I didn't. I knew what choice I'd make in the end, and already I missed the vast blueness that I'd grown up in. It's where I was meant to be, yet I'd leave it behind once again. Love makes us do crazy things.
Berwald was scared. I could tell. I was worrying him, because he knew how much I missed the ocean. But he didn't say anything, even as I slipped under the water after a kiss. I could see his blurry form standing at the shore from under the water, and I offered him a silent promise that I'd be back. He trusted me, and I wasn't going to betray that trust.
It took me a while to orient myself. Nothing looked familiar at first, but I remembered that I'd been nearby when Berwald saved me, so I started traveling along the cliff, following it till I spotted a reef that I recognized. From there, it was relatively simple. Creatures change, but the ocean never really does. I passed the place that Lukas had caught me the first time, swimming much faster as I went through, as if my memory of him might catch me again.
I found it a little strange though. I wasn't as scared as I used to be when I was in open water. Maybe being safe for so long had made me more courageous. Maybe it had made me more careless. Regardless, moving with purpose instead of caution was much faster, and I was nearing the caves before I even realized.
They loomed big and dark, and it dawned on me how inhospitable a place I'd occupied most of my life. Even before I'd approached, I felt some sense of fear welling up in my stomach. They used to be welcome safety, but now they only left me with a feeling of being stifled, of loneliness.
But I was a Mer with a mission, and, after checking to make sure no one was around to see me, I swam closer. I had to wait for my eyes to adjust after entering, then I followed the opening all the way to the back. It was a fake cave, to throw off anyone who might think to check. I pulled aside the boulder covering our actually caves with more than a little effort. I nearly gave up, actually, but it finally budged, and I sighed with relief.
That was cut short though, as I was quickly yanked through, and found myself at the sharp end of more than a few weapons. Thank goodness my eyes go wide when I'm surprised, for they saw the color and at least held back on stabbing me, for the time being.
After some scrutinizing, a few of them started to recognize me, and a buzzing of conversation began to fill the space, my name on most lips. I let them all take it in for a moment, then started scanning the crowd, looking for white hair.
"Please," I began, turning to the first person I recognized. "I need to see Emil."
It took a while, and I had to answer several questions, but eventually Emil was pulled to the forefront of the room, and I smiled with relief. He was visibly surprised to see me, but I didn't let him look for too long, wrapping him up in an embrace. He was thin, but alive.
Apparently the others grew bored with my sudden reappearance, for they left us alone, most going back to trying to scrape up some kind of food. Emil pulled away, looking at me curiously.
"I've been so worried about you!" I exclaimed, running my fingers through his hair fondly. He rolled his eyes, batting my hand away. I only smiled. Still experiencing teenage rebellion, it would seem. He gave me a look that told me that I wasn't the one who should have been worrying.
"I have a lot I need to tell you about." I admitted, pulling him back toward the bed we used to share. He followed closely, and got comfortable.
"I don't know what story they told about me, but the day I disappeared, I'd gone in search of food. I got tired of being starving, and I left the feeding ground." I began. He gave me an exasperated look, which I waved off. "I know it was a stupid idea. And I got caught, by a Hunter."
His eyes went wide, and I could feel several new pairs of eyes on me. But I devoted my attention to him.
"He was taking me somewhere, probably the castle. But a shark caught our scent, and attacked, and I managed to escape, but the Hunter was hot on my tail. He was just about to catch me when I swam into a net." I continued, and he gasped, eyes going even wider.
"The net went up, and a human was on the other side. I thought I was going to die all over again. But he didn't kill me. He brought me to his home, and he let me stay there with him." I explained, smiling fondly as I thought of Berwald. "And I… Well, we fell in love." I admitted breathlessly.
Emil's expression didn't reveal his thoughts, and I imagined he was having a tough time wrapping his mind around the thought of a human and Mer loving one another. It was unheard of, truly; Mer knew only that they should fear humans.
"I know, it is hard to believe. But truly, I love him." I promised, not giving him much time to take that in, continuing with my story.
"Anyway, I've been living with him ever since. And it was fantastic until just two days ago." I said, biting my lip. This was going to be the hardest part.
"Um… Do you remember your brother?" I asked. "You used to talk about him when you were younger."
He furrowed his brows, his face clearly wary of whatever I was trying to say.
"Well, uh, he's still alive. And, um… Well, he's the Hunter that caught me." I offered, watching carefully for his reaction. First he looked stunned, then disbelieving, then angry. "Emil, please, I wouldn't lie about this. It's really him. His name is Lukas, and he described you, I promise. He knew your name."
He still didn't look convinced, but he waited for me to finish.
"He… He wants to see you. He thought you were dead all of this time. That's why I came back." I finished, bringing a nail to my teeth to chew at nervously. I let him process it all, keeping quiet while he picked apart each piece of my story, thought through it carefully. I tried to ignore the number of Mer that were staring at me now, but it was getting hard. Had they really eavesdropped on my entire tale? I suppose they didn't have anything better to do.
I watched his face, waiting till he seemed to have come to his decisions. He had to decide a lot after all; if he was going to trust me, if he was going to believe that I was real, that I was alive, that humans weren't evil, that his brother was alive, was a hunter, wanted to see him for any purpose other than to kill him. I spoke meekly.
"Will you come?" I asked. It felt like a long time before he responded, but finally, a small nod of his head.
I heaved a sigh of relief, a smile coming to my lips. But honestly, I shouldn't have been so surprised. Anything was better than being trapped in those stagnant cave waters. We both took a moment to look around the cave for what was probably the last time, then we headed for the entrance.
The Violet-Eyes standing guard regarded us for a long moment, and I was fearful that they wouldn't let us go. But I knew better. Even if we died, it was two less mouths to feed, so they wouldn't really care in the end, so long as their hideout wasn't found.
Sure enough, they moved the boulder aside for us, and we slipped through together. I led the way out of the cave, Emil much more cautious than me. He actually stopped when we reached the edge of the feeding grounds, and I had to coax him back to my side. Still, his eyes darted every which way, body tense and movements timid.
As I led him forward, I began singing a lullaby, albeit quietly. It was one I used to sing when he had trouble sleeping, and I was glad to see it still put him at ease, even if only a little.
It took much longer to get back, since I was moving slower with Emil, but it went without a hitch. I found the cliff again, and began following it. I must have seemed entirely insane to Emil, but finally I caught sight of what I was looking for; Berwald had tied one of my Moomin mugs to a bit of fishing wire so that I'd know where to surface. I came up to it with a grin and tugged, then swam up and let my head break the surface. I could just barely see his head peeking over the cliff, and he gestured for me to continue along the cliff.
I followed it until I saw the first beach, and I smiled behind me at Emil.
"Okei, this is where we get out. Um, I just want to warn you, Berwald can look a little scary. Oh, Berwald is the human I've been living with. Anyway, his face is a little… Uh, well, anyway, the point is that he's actually super nice, so don't be scared. Now let's hurry. We've been really lucky so far, I don't want to get caught when we're so close." I rambled, taking his hand and pulling him forward. I'd be damned if I brought him this far just for him to swim away.
I breathed in the air as soon as my head broke the surface, finding I was relieved instead of sad to be out of the water. I made sure Emil was still with me, then dragged myself up onto the beach of the little cove from earlier. Berwald called to me from where he was climbing down the cliff, and I called back, helping Emil pull himself out of the water.
Berwald made quick work of getting to me, and forgoing the fact that I was still soaking wet, he practically knocked me over with a hug. After catching the breath he knocked out of me, I laughed.
"Did you miss me?" I wondered, returning the embrace.
"Yes." He breathed, kissing my hair. I decided not to mention that I knew that he had been more than a little scared that I wouldn't ever come back. He probably spent all of the hours apart pacing along the cliff, worrying his lip between his teeth and scaring the passing forest animals.
When he finally let me go, I gestured over to Emil.
"This is Emil. Emil, this is Berwald." I introduced, smiling. Emil looked properly wary, but at least he wasn't turning tail and flopping back into the water.
"Nice to meet ya." Berwald offered, nodding in his direction. Emil returned the gesture silently.
We waited in the sand until my legs had formed, Emil still entirely Mer when I had made the full change. So my theory had definitely been right, I was changing into a human faster. I put it from my mind as I put some clothes on.
It was too risky to hang out with a beached Mer, so Berwald climbed up the cliff and lowered one of his fishing nets, and I helped Emil into it, then Berwald hooked it to his metal monstrosity, and slowly began pulling him up, me holding onto the net as I climbed to make sure that he didn't hit anything on the way up. It was slow going, but eventually we got all three of us over the cliff and into the wheeled monstrosity.
I sat in the back with Emil, hoping to keep him calm. Just like me, he was more than a little uncomfortable with the ride, and even my singing didn't do much to sooth him. But it was a mercifully short ride, and we were back at the house.
We all lingered in the car for a long moment, and Emil looked at me, his face showing uncertainty for the first time. I tried to smile reassuringly, petting his hair. Berwald went inside to get a blanket to cover Emil with so that we could carry him in without anyone seeing his tail. I took the moment to try and placate him, kissing his temple and squeezing his fingers.
"It'll be alright, I promise. He's really not so bad, for a Hunter." I mused. "After he finished trying to kill me, he turned out to be rather nice company." I offered, grinning. He managed a small, nervous smile. Then Berwald was back, and we wrapped him up in the fabric, Berwald heaving him up into his arms, me hot on his heels.
When we got inside, Berwald put him down on the couch. Mathias, who had been sitting in front of the door to the storage room looking entirely bored out of his mind, got up and joined us in the room, checking out the new occupant with interest. Emil eyed him warily, and I wondered for a moment if he was mistaking Mathias for Lukas, but his face quickly grew bored, so apparently not.
Mathias introduced himself, but his words were cut short as Berwald pulled the blanket away, revealing Emil's tail. He looked at it with awe, and I was reminded that he'd never seen any of us as Mer, so this was his first time. Still, I could tell he was making Emil uncomfortable with his staring, so I nudged him. He took the hint, staring a little more discreetly, at least.
Berwald and I both rushed to check on the egg, glad to see that there weren't any changes, and no knocking sounds, so we had a while yet to wait, it would seem.
With that in order, I sat down next to Emil, brushing fingers through his hair again and leaning in close to his ear to speak, and I spoke in our tongue when I did.
"Are you ready?" I asked. He took a deep breath, but nodded. I smiled at him, hoping that I looked encouraging. I gave his hand one last squeeze, then got up, heading to the room we'd locked Lukas in. I opened it slowly, going inside and closing it behind me.
Lukas looked up at me, eyes wide and hopeful, but also fearful. I gave a small smile.
"He's here, but I wanted to warn you." I started, making sure I had his attention. "Emil hasn't spoken a word in years. Maybe he'll speak to you, but try not to be disappointed if he doesn't." I plead, taking a breath. Lukas nodded quickly, walking to me with haste.
"Please." He breathed, eyes wide, brows drawn. He looked young. I nodded, biting my lip and taking one last breath before I opened the door.
A/N: Gosh guys, what can I even say? I'm sorry for the wait, but I'm sure you're tired of hearing that. I've had a bit of a SuFin slump, it would seem, and I therefore had some trouble sitting down for this update. But, at last, here it is~! I hope some of you guys are still hanging on!
We're getting closer and closer to the end. It's hard to put an estimate on it, but maybe about three more chapters, give or take? I'm bad at estimating, and usually end up dragging it out longer than I plan to. But we'll see. Things are getting wrapped up now, for the most part.
So, how do you guys think that the brotherly reunion is going to go? I'm looking forward to it~! I'm glad to finally have all the Nordics together. It does my heart good.
In other news, some of you might have already seen, but I did a PruCan oneshot! It's a bit fishy, if you know what I mean. Kind of mertastic. So if you like PruCan, or my writing, or merpeople, you should go check it out. It's called White Waters.
And now I must return to preparing for a convention. Anime St. Louis is next month. No rest for the weary, or so they say. Oh, speaking of, I've started doing beadsprites. (Like, with perler beads) I'm just curious, how should I sell them? As keychains, magnets, etc.? Any ideas?
Alright, thanks as always for reading, and reviews/comments are always appreciated!
KuroRiya
九六りや