The next day Meri took Coco to the river to catch and fish for salmon. Salmon roe is a delicacy and goes for a great price. They grab their fishing gear and head towards the river behind the hill. There walk was almost completely silent except when they pointed out random things they spotted. Finally arriving they set up shade and a spot for fish. Meri catches some fish almost immediately with her hands and throws it into a basket. "They're so many fish here some of them just jump right out! Did you bring the net?" As Meri is taking she grabs another one tossing it into the basket while Coco looks for net in the bag and hands Meri a large net and she starts snatching up fish left and right. Soon thy didn't fit in the basket but the basket wasn't for the fish anyways. Meri sits down and starts slicing the fish starting from the head the to stomach harvesting any eggs and and making fillets out of most of them keeping the other portion completely intact. Meri heard a cracking sound as she looksed at Coco ripping a crab apart. ".....??" "Want crab roe?" "So auto tune... The hell why'd...er never mind" Meri continues minding her own business and finishes packing up. "Hey lil crab destroyer let's go to the next town over and sell some of what we have. It'll go higher than back at home" Coco putting the crab into the river, dusting his pants and smiling. "... your scary you know that kid?" Meri grabs his hand as she carries the cooler on a mini cart. "If we follow the river down stream we'll reach kantolat in half a day? Maybe" a few hours pass and it starts getting dark. The crickets are singing and the birds are sleeping. Coco is tired and can barely keep walking so Meri decides to set him down to sleep and get fire wood. While gathering she heard a big thud shaking the trees and the land surrounding. The hell? Meri ran back quickly to check on Coco and he was still there. Sighing she takes some matches out of her pocket and lighting the wood and paper she added. Cuddle up close to Coco she falls asleep. Waking up to the beaming sun and Coco shaking her violently and pointing to the river. "I'm up!" Meri pushes Coco off of her. "What? What happened?" She looks towards the river and see it has gone down almost empty. "What?? How is the water gone it was running fine yesterday. "Hey come on it might be some army's rebellion or something." Meri quickly dips the fire rood in the little remaining water as Coco grabs their belongings and they fast walk* towards the reason of the river not flowing. "You know... If it is the army of some other nation of whatever we probably shouldn't go there..." They move past the trees and I to the clearing where a small village resides and a sky mermaid is blocking the water as she has fallen in. The villagers had been trying to move her so the water would flow as normal but she was simply too heavy. "Um.. I'm getting a slight dajavu feeling Coco can you get me a sharp stick?" Coco nods putting down the cooler and finding a stick. Getting into the river bed and trying to wake the sleeping mermaid by scratching it's back and poking obnoxiously. Coco comes back with the stick er? Looks like a spear. "Coco...this is..a veryy sharp stick" a lil too sharp. Oh well from my head to my shoulders let me live god. Meri pokes the sky mermaid in the spine and it jumps up hovering in the air staring at them as the water comes rushing back in. "Oh shat"* panicking Meri throws Coco over the river bed just barely before she gets swept away. The mermaid looking down on this picks up Meri out the river and holds her up to her face. Coughing Meri frantically apologizes and says that she was blocking the river but the mermaid kept staring. She sets Meri down 'gently'(as she can) and continues to stare curiously. "Er...I'm sorry?" I'm some sort of criminal or what? Whyy is it looking at me so hard I'm scarred. Meri loses herself in her thoughts a bit before the mermaid raises her hand and shows Meri a sapphire tied around her wrist. "Um.. pretty? Wait why are you showing me this?" "Oh! You must have digged this out and thats why you were so tired!" Meri had an "I got it didn't I?" Look oh her face as Coco stares the mermaid in the eyes and it stares at him back. The hell??? A staring contest? A few moments pass and the both look at Meri with disappointment. "What! Why are you looking at me like that? Am I being judged?" Coco grabs Meri's hand and writes some letters with his finger. "WHAT! You're the same clumsy pup from 15 years ago?.. er...the resemblance is uncanny actually, and the sapphire you have is the one I gave you?" How did he even find that out? She nods putting her face closer to Meri. "So like...do you eat people?" A moment of awkward silence as Meri gets stared down. It feels as if shes cursing at me..."err never mind my bad... So um.. you speak English?"* she shakes her head. "Well you understand it so It makes it easier I suppose... Wait did you get some attachment to me like I imprinted on you or something??" The mermaid sighs and grabs Meri and Coco before flying off. Coco tries to stop himself from throwing up as Meri panics. "So hey um... You angry? Please um let us down! Hey u..um.. fish? Goddess?? Mermaid??" Eventually they get seated down at a hill close to the city but far enough that she won't be noticed. "Nuit"* "huh?" "Nuit. My name is Nuit" "oh..hi Nuit.." she can speak?? After that she flies back off into the sky disappearing in the clouds. "Well. No fish to sell for us huh?" Meri looks towards Coco throwing up. Er.."come on buddy let's go home" rubbing his back and slowly lifting him up.
*Fast walk. They couldn't run because of the weight of the fish and whatever else they were carrying
*Shat. Meri tries not to curse around children
*English. It's not actually English I just couldn't think of a name for the language
*Nuit. Egyptian sky goddess. (Yes I searched on Google lmao