Grabbing the blade of an opponent's brand was a risky move that was best done wearing gloves or a gauntlet. For safety's sage, Uit did not personally demonstrate this move and instead described it. When all was done, he sat down and told Cormac: "Life isn't like a story children hear. Fights involving brands can be rough and bloody and very rarely do people play fair."
While Cormac nodded in agreement, Melusine merely looked Uit over and asked: "Are you a Profound One, Uit?"
Chuckling, the swordsman answered: "No, I am not, though most of the people here at Surface-Dweller's Crypt are."
Cormac and Melusine both looked around them. There were some onlookers, bored individuals looking to pass the time. They were anthropoid in shape with craniums like those of fish, all so diverse in likeness and their colourations matched that of the fish species whom their craniums resembled. Their wondrous, bellying orbs never closing their stared at both Cormac and Melusine, some looking quite patient with these two Children of the Storm so new to the Deep, others looking annoyed that one who was not one of their species was mistaken for one of them. They were bright and slippery with lamellar ridges on their backs, at the sides of their scrags were hammering gills and their long hands were webbed.
One eel-headed Profound One swam forward and inquired: "What do you two know of yond colossal ray that was sighted this very morn?" From the voice, Cormac and Melusine could tell this was a man… Or a woman with a very masculine voice.
Immediately, Cormac replied: "We are travelling with her… Sir?" Upon getting a nod from the Eel-headed Profound One that he was indeed a man, Cormac then added: "We are only staying with her until our routes diverge. She is going to the mating grounds of her kind and Melusine and I are heading to Pacifica. We understand that once upon a time goods would be sent from here to Pacifica, would you happen to have any word from there?"
Alas, since the coming of the wars and Surface-Dweller's Crypt's switch from major trade center to boring derelict, the settlement had not heard of any news from Pacifica. Still, the Eel-Headed Profound One did have some information he could share: "There is a group of raiders consisting of Profound Ones, they are led by a man by name of Tuncathrah and ride manta rays. They roam these parts I'd be careful if I were you, even if you are travelling with a giant ray."
Cormac and Melusine both took these words to heart. As the crowd dispersed, the Young Egan thanked Uit for the brand lessons and then he and the Surface-Born Merrow-Maiden made their departure from Surface-Dweller's Crypt.
Their first instinct was to check on Tuspehstah. If Tuncathrah and his raiders rode manta rays, then it stood to reason a ray of Tuspehstah's size would be of interest to them, quite possibly to use as transportation for the entire gang.
To their relief, they found the substantial stingray just where they left her. Her barb was still sticking out of the sand with the rest of her still beneath it… And yet, would a barb of that size not be noticeable to everyone around? Couldn't it have been seen from town? Perhaps it was and no one saw any reason to bother Tuspehstah.
Giving Cormac a smile, Melusine asked: "How does it feel to be just like Gene Kelly?"
Confused, Cormac stared at her. Gene Kelly? The guy from "Singin' in the Rain"? That was the only work of Gene Kelly's that Cormac knew and he had only seen it once, when he had been eight.
"Pardon?" Cormac asked, unsure what Melusine was talking about.
"Tony Curtis then?"
Tony Curtis… He had played the role of Eric in the swashbuckler film "The Vikings" two years prior. Cormac was not entirely sure if it was accurate, he still had two hands and he was sincerely hoping he never lost a hand. With a shrug, he answered: "I'd go with Robert Taylor and I don't think I'm anywhere like him or Ivanhoe just yet, but if I am to be Ivanhoe, does that make you, my Rowena?"
Smiling coyly, Melusine answered: "Perhaps."
Taking a seat upon the seafloor, Cormac thought back to the Profound Ones. All of them looking like that with the craniums of fish, long webbed-hands and what not… How could there be intermarriage between human beings and those things? How did such unions that produced offspring such as Ronemun happen? What had his great-uncle, if truly his great-uncle this paterfamilias of Ronemun had been, seen that he did not? Perhaps, it was just the fact that no matter their appearance, they were people as well, people with their good and their bad individuals and perhaps in her own way, this materfamilias of Ronemun had been beautiful, not only when it came to her appearance but when it came to her soul.
Still, those huge unblinking eyes! Giving a shudder, Cormac uttered aloud: "I may have to get used to those!"
"Get used to what?" inquired Melusine, now sitting next to him upon a rock. "What were you thinking about, Cormac?" Upon receiving an explanation, Melusine agreed: "Yes, I do think I may have to get used to those as well and the sight of their gills! It is one thing to see something like that on a fish, but on something humanoid! I can't even understand it! None of the merrows had gills, I don't have gills, Mer people like Urefenkebos don't have gills, Uit didn't have gills, so why do the Profound Ones?"
"Well…" Cormac began, rubbing his chin and staring at Melusine's tail. "I'd say you've been turned into something semi-humanoid… As for Mer people like Urefenkebos with the mermaids being skeletons from the waist up and the mermen just being skeletons for the most part… I really don't know, how they are even alive baffles me beyond them having been created by mages long ago. I don't even understand how they can reproduce."
Shuddering, Melusine exclaimed: "I really, really don't want to discuss that, Cormac!"
"Sorry, Melusine." Apologized Cormac, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know, this strange new world of ours filled with such mystery and magic… I guess there is a lot to get used to." A lot to get used to… Like the concept of being alone… His voice cracking, the Young Egan asked: "M-Melusine?"
Noting the crack in his voice, Melusine grew concerned. Getting down from the rock she was sitting upon, she sat down upon the sand next to Cormac, in a position that would have had her on her knees if she still had legs. "What is it, Cormac? What is the matter?"
"If you met other Children of the Storm who had been turned into Mer people… You… W-Would you…" Trembling, Cormac tried to continue on. Only two days in the Deep and already he was frightened about the prospect of being alone? In what meaning of the word, he was not sure… Perhaps every meaning… As much as people liked to think the world small now that the map had been filled out, that did not change the fact it was not. People still went out searching for lost cities, sometimes never to be seen again, and when one was an inhabitant of the Deep, something that covered two-thirds of the globe, the very concept of being alone in something so huge and vast became much more terrifying. Without a friend, without a community, without a lover, without anyone in this huge world, the mere thought had caused Cormac to grow frightened, his eyes were wide, he was breathing rapidly, he was shaking…
And then he felt Melusine's hand upon his. He looked her in the eye as she said to him: "I am not going anywhere but to Pacifica with you, Cormac. You were the first Child of the Storm I met and I won't abandon you simply because we meet others who have been transformed as I have." Still the look of concern stayed upon her comely countenance as he inquired: "You wouldn't…"
"N-Never…" Cormac answered quietly, then once more, louder he said again: "Never!" Giving her a smile, he then said to Melusine: "Besides, it sounds pretty boring. What would I do with others like me? Would we just be taking part in contests to see how long we can all last outside of the water? Why, it the most idiotic thing I have ever heard!"
Laughing, Melusine commented: "And the most suicidal! Why I would be shocked if you would even want to be in the company of such people!"
Looking to the side, Cormac muttered under his breath: "I'd shock myself to be honest." Sighing, lay down upon the sand and asked aloud: "Now what? We've visited Surface-Dweller's Crypt, so now what do we? Go in search of Tuncathrah and his gang to put a stop for them? That would be like going on safari."
Half-interested and half-confused, Melusine inquired: "What do you know about going on safari?"
"There was this old guy back in Brigid, he always said 'Animals just don't magically appear on command when you are on safari.'" Closing his mismatched eyes, Cormac added: "It would probably be like going in search of these raiders. They won't just appear on command."
Melusine could do naught but nod in agreement. There really was not much to do around here. There were places like that on the Surface, why would there have not been places like that in the Deep?
A thought then crossing her mind, Melusine uttered a very simple thing that she and Cormac could do: "We could go back into town and see about getting something to eat."