Part 2
Disclaimer: see previous chapter.
To Abby's surprise, she and Helen did not have to go far, just over several streets to a small, slightly suburban-looking area with houses rather than condominium buildings. The fact that Helen did look somewhat shifty and conspirational had mollified Abby's surprise and justified some of her expectations, but not all of them, as Helen eventually abandoned her caution and knocked on the door of one of the houses.
Immediately, a giantess opened the door, making Abby feel more regular: this was more up to the ARC's standards.
"Hello, Kuro," Helen said brightly. "This is Abby; she wants to see your trophy mermaid."
"Interesting," the giantess – Kuro – said brightly. "Come on in and let's talk about it."
/
Inside, Abby felt even more worried – the house looked positively mundane, if not counting its owner's slightly-larger-than-the-average body size.
"So," the giantess-Kuro said brightly, "why do you want to see a mermaid?"
"She's a mermaid groupie," Helen shrugged, "and had encountered some of the sea monkeys from our future. She needs to see a 'real' mermaid from your world, to see things in the perspective, you know?"
"Fair enough," Kuro nodded, before turning to Abby. "So, are you game?"
"Um, "Abby shook her head to clear it. "What do you mean, your world?"
"I came from an alternate dimension via a series of time anomalies," Kuro shrugged. "Met Helen, and became on and off travelling companions ever since."
"Oh," Abby blinked. "How's that working out?"
"Well enough," Helen said crossly, clearly uncomfortable talking about her and her adventures away from the ARC. "Shall we go and see the mermaid now?"
"You mean, that's not her?" Abby could not help but channel her inner blonde at the moment.
"No, little puff ball, the mermaids – the merfolk – are a completely different species from me," the grin that Kuro gave Abby was not very friendly and showed too much teeth for Abby's comfort, "or you, either. Do not joke about this ever again, or I will get upset. You won't like it, when I'm upset."
Abby looked at Kuro in a new light, decided that there really was not a chance that she could take her and Helen at the same time if they got into a fight, and nodded. "Deal."
There was a pause as each member of the trio waited for the others to make the next move.
"So, what happens now?" Abby could not help but ask.
"Now we go and see the mermaid," Kuro shrugged and opened a door to her basement – and there was a time anomaly.
/
By now, Abby was used to time anomalies – sort of. The fact that a Mer (or a giant sea monkey, depending on who was telling the story) has kidnapped her through one of them counted too for the fact that she did go through this one – and found herself inside a relatively dark and wet cave. Relatively, because there was some illumination, mostly from strange-looking torches located on the walls.
"So," Abby said with a rather fake bravado, "where's the mermaid?"
And the mermaid rose from the pool (that occupied the greater part of the cave) with nary a sound, and she was as Helen described her – a well (very well) built woman from waist up, a beautiful fish tail from the waist down, beautiful, long hair slicking down her back – and eyes that were black, and cold, and not-quite-human.
And neither was the mermaid's face, for all of its beauty – it was not exactly built like a human face either. "What is she?" Abby said, quietly, without any bravado.
"The descendants of lobe-finned fish in this universe," Helen said, also quietly – but, perhaps, not quietly enough as the mermaid twisted her whole body, not just her head and neck, in their direction and said something... in Latin?
Furthermore, neither Helen nor her friend seemed particularly surprised by this, and began to have 'a lovely discussion' with the mermaid, all in Latin, the sort that Abby's parents used to hold, only English, if their facial expressions were anything for Abby to judge by.
"Please don't," she said quietly, and the mermaid was the first to one to hear her, as she whirled to Abby and began to yell at her – before getting out of the pool and charging at her.
Later, Abby would realize that the mermaid could move so fast because her tail ended not in a fishy tail fin, but in something more like a sea lion's flippers, but back then she didn't think about that as the mermaid charged at her like some sort of a crazy, elongated seal...
...or as Kuro grabbed the mermaid by the nape and lifted her into the air, effortlessly, and flung her back into the pool, just as effortlessly.
"I think it's time for us to leave," Helen said with a surprisingly gentle voice to Abby, and so they left.
TBC