“Are you alright?” A small, pale face peered down at me. I blinked away the salt water and brought her into focus. She tilted her head, examining me, sending her short, frizzy curls bouncing. They were a pale … pink? What? How? I blinked again and again, ensuring my eyes were in fact working correctly.
Behind her, through the glass ceiling, a flock of birds seemed to dart quickly through the night sky, their reflective bellies catching the light escaping the room like they were made of precious metals. They swooped again, shimmering in silver.
Wait. No, that was not a flock of odd birds flying past … those were … fish?
I sat up abruptly. Where the fuck was I?
I looked at the pink-haired woman on her knees, looking at me with concern.
“Are you hurt, human?” A deep voice emitted from a muscled man standing behind her, sounding less concerned and more annoyed. His giant arms were crossed. He was dressed obscenely in a small red cloth tied at his hip, which covered next to nothing of his robust body. But his lack of clothing wasn’t what shocked me. It was his legs, which varied from the dark brown of his skin to shimmering reds and golds. Was that paint? No. My eyes nearly flew from their sockets. That was his flesh.And his feet; they were long and slender, drenched in that same red and gold, forming two webbed fins.
Adrenaline flooded my body, and I jolted away from the creatures that stood before me.
“Where … where am I?” And what in bloody Infernum were they?
“I will give you answers soon, but first you must calm down. Can you stand?” the woman asked, still at my level. Her outstretched hand was a rose hue, each finger bound to the other with a thin, pale-pink membrane.
I turned and vomited,again. What on earth were these strange monsters and where was I?
“See, she’s fine,” the man, beast, whatever, said. Then he pointed to my wrist. “Is that a ventus?”
“Yes, I would have missed her if I hadn’t seen its glow,” the other answered.
“Clear skin like that, besides the freckles, not a pockmark or scar. She must be someone important.”
My heart was in a full canter, my breath ragged.
“Can’t you soothe her? A song or happy thought,” the man asked.
They continued discussing me as if I was not there.
“She’s too stressed for that now. It wouldn’t work,” the woman said as she stood. “We must tell Hylos.”
Where her feet should have been instead stretched slender appendages in gradients of rose and purple, akin to her counterpart’s. Like fishes’ tails.
I rubbed the sick from my mouth. I needed to get my wits about me and get out of here, wherever here was.
Behind the pair, another creature emerged out of a pool in the center of the large room. She had long hair of pale green falling in wet rivuletsdown her back. A song emitted from her, sounding softly through the room. But she did not sing it. It just poured from her. And in her grip, she pulled a soaked sailor I recognized from dinner, smiling in that strange daze. Like the look on the captain’s face on the ship during the storm.
What possessed them so that they didn’t fight back?
“I’ll find some guards to help take her to a better location so we can decide how to deal with our …guest,” he said.
I did not like the sound of that.
Then he turned to walk away, wide shoulders roped in muscle. He was powerful. But with his back turned, it was my only opportunity.
Shoving past the pink-haired woman, I lunged for the pool.
“Wait, calm down, you’re alright!” she shouted.
Like Infernum I was! If I could get into the water, I could swim back to the surface. I reached the pool and jumped in feetfirst. The chill shocked my system. I bobbed to the surface as the water warmed around me. Treading, I realized that the blue glow had returned, haloing me. Just like before.
“Just do something already, Raylik,” the woman said, flustered.
He grunted, then stalked in my direction. Dammit.
Panicked, I dove as deep as possible, but my tired body struggled to fight down. I buoyed up, my back scraping a rocky surface now above me.
