Wendy groaned slightly and coughed, water spraying from her mouth slightly as she screwed her eyes up and rolled onto her back. She didn't have the faintest idea where she was but when she opened her eyes it was dark. In fact, the only light source seemed to coming from a pool of water next to her, which was glowing slightly in a strange ethereal way.
She waited for her eyes to adjust to the gloom and discovered she was in a small cave of some kind, low rocky ceiling above her and several ledges and boulders dotted all over the place. There was no sign of an exit but Wendy could smell a very faint breeze that implied it opened somewhere, but wherever that somewhere was it was probably only a very small opening.
But how had she got here? The last thing she could remember was falling off a cliff after the attack from the two black dragons. She was still very wet so she definitely hit the water below but… what had happened in between? Where were her friends? Were they alright? She didn't have a clue what had happened to them - for all she knew they could have all been eaten by the dragons!
"Charla?" she called out into the darkness, nervously. "Charla, are you there? Happy? Lily? First Master, Mavis? Is anyone here at all?"
The only thing that answered were her echoes.
Until the water next to her suddenly bubbled and rippled slightly. Wendy started and drew back away from it, watching with wide eyes as… something came out.
It looked humanoid but it had distinctly none-human qualities such as its sallow, pale-grey skin, bright yellow eyes and wild green hair that hung around its head like a large clump of seaweed. She couldn't see it that well in the darkness but she could swear that its jagged teeth were also very yellow. And, although she really had no idea, it looked a bit like a young boy. If it were a human she would have said he was roughly her age.
The grey-skinned boy cocked his head sideways, curiously staring at her.
"Um… er… hello?" Wendy tried nervously. "Did you… did you bring me here? Was it you that saved me?"
The boy didn't reply and continued staring, so much so that Wendy started to feel extremely unnerved by it.
"Do you… can you… understand what I'm saying?" Wendy tried.
The boy opened his mouth and Wendy immediately clapped her hands over her ears as a high-pitched, piercing scream came out. Wendy's screech of pain instantly mingled with his own, scrambling away from him and hunching her head to bury her face against her knees as if this would somehow help.
The boy looked rather unhappy at this reaction and stopped screaming. Wendy slowly raised her head to look at him again but as soon as she did, he started again. She pressed her hands harder over the sides of her head, but watched the boy curiously. It was almost like he was trying to communicate but it wasn't happening right.
Eventually the boy appeared to give up and dived back down into the water, a large fish-like tail splashing the surface as he went. Wendy blinked at that. Had that been a part of him?
That was… a merman? Or a merboy? Whatever you called a young merman…
If it was it was unlike any merman that Wendy had ever seen pictures of. And it was certainly nothing like the only actual merperson she knew about and that was Lucy's Water Bearer Spirit, Aquarius. Although, having said that, Wendy had never actually met Aquarius before. Lucy never liked calling her outside of battle situations because Aquarius usually got angry whenever she summoned her at all. And Wendy had never actually been there whenever Aquarius had been summoned before. But she'd seen pictures of her and knew well that she didn't look a thing like that. Aquarius was a beautiful woman, looking entirely human from the waist up.
That merboy… not so much.
But where had he gone?
Was he coming back?
And where was she?
Eventually, after about half an hour or so, the merboy returned, rising out of the water once more and pointing wildly at Wendy with one finger. And this time, more were with him. Two adults, both of them female, or so Wendy assumed from the pebble necklaces and the cloths around their waists they wore, rose up with the boy to stare at her as well. But they were no more human looking than the merboy, and they certainly wouldn't have won any beauty contests. Their eyes were bulging and their faces seemed shrunken, giving them fish-like qualities even on their upper half.
"Um… hello…" Wendy murmured, hugging her knees and staring at them. "Please, can someone tell me where I am?"
One of the mermaids let out a similar high-pitched scream to the boy with Wendy reacted strongly to once again. The mermaid in question grimaced and, when she regained Wendy's attention, she began to beckon to her, bidding her to come closer to the water's edge.
"Um… why do I need to…" Wendy questioned. "You're not going to scream again, are you?"
The mermaid shook her head as all three of them backed away from the edge. Wendy brightened, finally knowing that at least they could understand her, and crawled slowly towards the edge. She'd already spent the half an hour the boy had been away trying to find an exit and failed so she had nothing to lose really.
But as she drew closer to the edge, the mermaids and merboy sank back beneath the water. Wendy blinked, waiting for them to come back up, but after half a minute or so one of the mermaid's grey hands rose up and waved her downwards, trying to indicate for her to come into the water.
Wendy faltered slightly, hesitant to enter an environment where she couldn't breath with a bunch of strangers. But, thinking quickly, she summoned some of her Sky Magic to manipulate the surrounding air and use it to form some kind of air pocket around her face. As she slowly leaned over the side to poke her head into the water, her head and hair were promptly soaked, but her face including her mouth nose and eyes remained dry, though she had to concentrate hard to maintain the air bubble in this environment.
It turned out there were several more merpeople down there. Mermaids and mermen, adults and children alike, all of them staring at her with interest. And finally the reason for the glowing water was explained - the place was dotted with dozens of bioluminescent fish that were flitting about like underwater fireflies.
The mermaid who had beckoned her was at the fore and this time when she opened her mouth, words came out.
"That is in an interesting trick you have there," she said, her voice slightly hissy and raspy but still quite coherent. "And I hear that you have many more unique tricks at your disposal, human girl."
"Um…" Wendy murmured. "Why do I have to be like this when we talk?"
"Because we merpeople cannot speak above the surface of the water. The air distorts our vocal chords and only allows us to scream in our own tongue rather than form the words of yours."
"Oh…" Wendy murmured, deciding not to mention Aquarius being fine with this just in case it hit a sore spot. "Well… can you tell me why I am here? I'm grateful to be alive but… where am I? And who are you?"
"I am Murcus, the Chieftainess of the merpeople of the Great Lake. And you are in a cave deep underground. This young merboy is responsible for bringing you here after you fell off a cliff, according to him."
"Oh, well… thank you for rescuing me…" Wendy smiled at the boy, who looked somehow sheepish.
"He did not rescue you," Murcus shook her head. "Not really. If that had been his intention, he would have simply dropped you off at the beach next to where you fell. Instead, he has dragged you many dozens of miles to reach this place."
"Dozens of miles?" Wendy gasped. "But… why would you do that?"
"He did it because he is an adventurous boy who doesn't follow the rules," Murcus glowered at the boy, who cringed and hid slightly behind another mermaid, possibly his mother, who also looked annoyed at him. "It is against the rules of our colony for children his age to head out of the lake and go to the sea without supervision. Sea-going merpeople are not as peaceable as we are and if they had found him wandering through their domain they would surely have attacked. But he wanted to go on a little adventure, and when he was on it, he saw something he thought was interesting - a young girl with the ability to fire a tornado out of her mouth fighting against a dragon. So, what does he do? He brings the girl back with him so that he can show her off to his family and friends, like a funny shaped rock or a colourful shell. Conveniently forgetting the fact he would be in trouble as soon as he got back."
"Oh…" Wendy murmured, looking perplexed. "Does that make me… a souvenir? Are you going to keep me here?"
"No, you do not belong down here," Murcus shook her head, her long heir floating erratically like a kelp frond. "We have nothing you would need to survive down here, so we will take you back to surface world shortly. However… the boy's tales have peaked our interest. Can you really fire a tornado out of your mouth?"
"Well… something like that…" Wendy giggled.
"Could you show us?"
"Not in here - there isn't enough room," Wendy shook her head, before she noticed something - one of the mermen had something that resembled a large bitemark on his arm, recently made by something Wendy didn't dare guess at. "But maybe I can show you something else. Can you come here?"
...
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