Two more knocks came from the door. "Merlilia, can you please come out?" Kai's voice resounded from the other side once again. "I want to leave. Drop me off at the nearest dock. I refuse to stay with murderers." Venom laces my voice. I tuck my head deeper into my knees.
"Merlilia, I know this is new to you, but I swear we won't harm you," Kai lowers his voice to soothe me but it does no such thing. "Besides, we can't let you go until we get our jewel back,"
Are you kidding me? That is what he's still worried about? A stupid jewel? "Screw you and your jewel!" I shout at the top of my lungs. "Grow up princess. This is how the world works. We only repaid our debts to other sailors." Brandon's voice rings in my ear. His words slash them like knives. I get out of bed and march to the door.
I swing the door open and see Kai's hand about to knock again. He stops and looks at me in surprise. I ignore him and slap Brandon across his face with all my might. Us Sakana are extremely strong. All the time and swimming we spend underwater enhance our forearms and fins.
"Consider that me repaying my debt to all the mermaids you slaughtered," I seethe. "That hurt didn't it? The mermaids are dead and you are going to have a nasty bruise. Nobody wins. How can two wrongs possibly make a right? You can't go around slaughtering innocent creatures without a care in the world and call me immature. You play hero and tell yourself you're doing the right thing every night, but the truth is you are just as evil as the sirens who murdered your men."
Nobody says anything. All eyes are on us. Some faces are in shock by my actions, some concerned, and others ready to pin me down at a moment's notice. Brandon doesn't say anything or move. When he does it's quick and rough. He returns my slap but ten times harder.
"What do you want us to do then?! Do you want us to talk to them? Because every time they open their mouths they kill someone! Get that through your head!" I stand in shock. My neck hurts from the sudden whiplash and my cheek burns like fire. Kai punches Brandon in the face and pins him down on the floor.
"Don't fucking touch her! That's not how we do things around here!" More words are said and the guys scurry to take Kai off of Brandon. I don't register anything. I stand there, motionless. I finally move my neck despite it hurting like hell. I walk out the door while everyone is busy. I go to the top of the deck and the edge of the boat.
"Are you okay hun?" Sia says and makes her way toward me. She embraces me in a hug. "I'm so sorry," she cries. I aggressively push her away. I needed to get away from here. I needed to get home. To my family. I lean forward and let myself fall. Before I touch the water I hear someone yell "No!"
I am engulfed in water but I don't transform. I can see and breathe underwater but my tail doesn't come back. My ears turn into fins and gills appear below them but that's it. What the hell is happening?
I look around frantically. I cannot swim to the depths of the ocean with my legs! Something grabs my feet and for the first time, I am afraid of the ocean. I am yanked down and whatever has me grabs my legs. I cry out in pain. I start kicking whatever it is. Its ice-cold touch stings. It feels like frostbite.
Sirens don't feel like this. We were at the border of their territory so encountering one isn't impossible, but this close to the surface? I look down to see what is dragging me and come face-to-face with a dryad. What was a dryad doing up here?
Its rotting scales and deadly cold hands scaled up my body and then the completely unexpected happened.
"Hi," she smiled and said.
It took me a moment to breathe again. "You're not human but you also don't have a tail. What are you?"
It was talking. She was talking. Dryads have always been portrayed as vicious and incapable of speech. Just another beast in the sea. Was I too ignorant about my own family species?
"You can...talk," I mumble. Her lips curl up and her fangs show my reflection. "You do too!" She starts swimming around me, making my hair swirl upwards. "You're a dryad are you not?" She stops and looks at me. She was honestly terrifying. She looked...creepy. Not disgusting just...creepy.
Her scales weren't rotted though they felt like it. They just looked really ugly. I cringe but quickly wipe the look off my face. It was rude. Her breath didn't stink and her teeth were a pearly white. "You know what I am?" Should I tell her I'm a mermaid? Honestly, even I don't know what is happening to me right now.
"I've heard about the different species. I...study you guys," I make up a lie. Or maybe it wasn't because I definitely had a lot of observing to do. "Do you kill us as they do," she stares blankly at me and points up at the boat I threw myself off of. I wince and shake my head.
"No, I would never. I watch from afar. I have never been this close to a dryad. I examine you guys to figure out what I am. I don't know why I have gills and fins as ears but not a tail when I am wet," I shake my head, showing my confusion.
The dryad tilts her head and looks at me in curiosity. "Yeah, you are a strange one,"
"If you know humans are dangerous, why did you come near me if you thought I was one?" I ask. "I thought you were drowning," she looks at me with her pale face. "You would help a human even though they kill your kind?"
She shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know. It doesn't feel right not to. We have killed a few of them too, so I would be a hypocrite."
"But they give no thought. They kill all Sakana. They don't do it for righteousness they do it to be spiteful. Dryads rarely even come to the surface yet two tails of your kind are up on that wall!"
She tilts her head again. "What wall?" before I can respond, a shadow casts above us and I look up to see a net. My eyes widen. "Leave!" I shout at her. "Why?" She questions. "Just go!" I shout once more.
"You are telling me to leave with a sense of urgency, yet you continue to stay. Do you want to come with me?" Did I? I could follow some strange dryad to her den or get captured by people who seek to harm me. I grab her hand. "Lead the way,"