“But yet you have never hunted your prey?”
I shook my head.
“How do you eat meat without the death of an animal?”
“You just go to the store and buy some. You never have to…”My words trailed off as I knew I wouldn’t be able to explain the concept of grocery stores and a consumer-driven market.
“You are a strange creature, Brett.”He took in my body, his gaze traveling slowly up and down my length.“You are young, strong, and full of life. You will enjoy the hunt.”He turned and began to swim toward Syleen, then looked back over his shoulder.“Actually, this hunt is not for food anyway. I think you will quite enjoy it. I find it to be an immense thrill.”
I almost asked him what he meant that this hunt wasn’t for food. There would be enough meat on a shark to last the tribe several days. He’d already turned back and was making his way toward Syleen once more. I didn’t have the inclination anyway, to be honest. Who cared about the reasoning for this hunt? I just wanted to get it over with.
A motion beside me caused me to flinch. A shape passed by and came to a stop beside Syleen. Even in the dark, Therin’s long hair seemed to reflect light.
Syleen’s ever-stern face took on an even more accusing appearance as she turned to Therin. After a few moments, his hand motioned toward me.
They were talking. It was so obvious, I wondered how I’d missed all the times the mers were communicating without me realizing. Once again, they were talking about me without the inclination to let me hear. I didn’t need to hear to know what they were saying. Syleen was frustrated that Therin was late, and Therin, traitor that he was, was blaming me. I almost went over and confronted them, but didn’t. What was the point? I’d learned a long time ago that you can’t change people. Syleen wasn’t going to like me. Fine, I could live with that. And Therin? Well, he was always going to be… Going to be what? A fucker. Therin was always going to be a fucker.
I swear Syleen could hear me. She looked over with narrowed eyes and gave me a warning glare.
They continued their private conversation long enough for me to lose interest. I inspected the other mers with us. Both of the mermaids had long dark-brown hair. Both had deep-blue tails. It was dark enough that they could have been purple or black, but I couldn’t tell. Their faces were pretty enough. They looked like a couple of college coeds, perfectly able to fade into a crowd. A relatively attractive crowd, sure, but blendable nonetheless. Actually, the longer I looked at them, the more I realized how similar they appeared. They had to be sisters, maybe even twins. Twins, huh. If what Lelas had said about the birth rate was accurate, and there was no reason to think she was wrong, twins would be a pretty big deal—increasing the population growth exponentially with only one birth. I would think Syleen wouldn’t want to risk losing twins to feed a shark. The sister on the left turned her head, barely enough to register movement but enough to tell me she was aware of me watching her. I turned my attention to the merman closest to me.
He looked to be in his early to midthirties. What would that make him? Several hundred years old? Hell, they’re immortal, maybe that made him thousands of years old. Even though he looked a little older than the sisters, there was a boyish quality about him. His cheeks were full, giving him a rounded face, but not in an overweight kind of way. Even by mer standards, this guy had a fairly remarkable build—nothing compared to tattoo man, but still. His blond hair was braided and entwined with bits of kelp. The braid floated out behind him, but it looked long enough to reach midthigh. I needed to ask Lelas about mer anatomy. Did mers have thighs? Unlike the sister, I was fairly certain he was instantly aware of my inspection, but he kept his eyes intently focused in front of him.
“Syleen, I think it is time for us to depart. Much later and we should postpone until the morrow.”Zef’s warm voice reached out.
I turned my head to Syleen, wondering why Zef had chosen to address her in such a public manner. Apparently she had similar feelings, judging from the scowl that she only briefly let color her face. It seemed Zef was given more leeway than the rest of us. Maybe they were lovers. It was hard to imagine Syleen giving in to such romantic notions, but anything was possible, I supposed.
Without word or gesture, Syleen turned and began to swim. As a unit, the other six mers fell into formation and followed. A warning would have been nice. As it was, the braided merman who brought up the rear was several yards in front of me by the time I began to trail along.
Despite Zef’s warning of leaving too late, the mers swam at a nearly leisurely pace. Of course a mer’s leisurely pace is at least twice as fast as a human can run. I had no trouble keeping up. In fact, after a few minutes, I struggled to force myself to maintain such a slow pace, especially with how fast Lelas and I had swum just a few hours ago. Granted, I’d not seen the mers travel together since my arrival. From my understanding, they often moved from location to location—frequently using varying kelp forests as home base. Even so, I’d seen them swimming together often, gathering up food for the meal or playing in the currents together. They swam as a group, much like humans walking down a sidewalk, no one person in the lead, just an ever-changing mass of bodies. This time, however, they made a V-formation, like geese flying in their seasonal migration. Syleen in the front, of course, Zef and Therin on either side of her and slightly angled behind. The twins followed the pattern, with Tattoo and Braid boys in the rear vertices.
For a while, I swam between Tattoo and Braid, only slightly behind. It felt wrong somehow. I wasn’t part of the group. I felt exposed. Finally, I moved to the right and fell into place behind Braid. It made the sides uneven, but it felt right. I almost moved behind Tattoo, but I thought that wouldn’t be a good idea if Syleen looked back. As much as I tried to say I didn’t care what she thought or said, I obviously did. The unplanned, unexpected bonus was getting to see Tattoo on my left periphery. If I wasn’t going to be openly defiant of Syleen, at least I’d found a covert way of challenging her.
As slowas it seemed we were going, the constant pace started to become an issue. I wasn’t sure how long we’d been swimming or how far we’d gone, but the sun had passed its zenith hours before, and I was willing to bet that sunset wasn’t too far away.
While I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we’d traveled easily over a hundred miles. As much as I loved the ocean, I’d never done any amount of study about it. I’d seen a few specials onAnimal Planet, even a couple of episodes during “Shark Week.” However, it was probably less than the average person. Why sit and watch or study stuff about the ocean when I could be in it? When I’d found out we were going on a shark hunt, I assumed we’d be staying pretty close to camp. While I didn’t know exactly where we were in relation to San Diego, I could tell we were still on the West Coast of North America. Everything had been too familiar to be anywhere else. The West Coast has no shortage of sharks. I thought we’d simply travel up or down the coastline till we found a large group of seals and wait for Sharky to show up.
We were traveling west. I could tell that, since we were beginning to travel into the sunset. Surely, we weren’t traveling to Hawaii. Even at mer speed, that would take nearly a month. Hawaii is over two thousand miles away. I wanted to ask. Syleen would just be a bitch. Therin… well, I had no desire to talk to Therin. I didn’t know any of the rest of them enough to say anything. Approaching Tattoo was asking to get a hard-on in front of the group. No need to add that complication.
Maybe Zef. However, how was I going to talk to Zef without Syleen right there to jump in? Besides, no one else was talking. Actually, maybe they were and they were all just leaving me out. I doubted it, though. Everyone was expressionless. They looked like they were on their way to a funeral or to war. Of course, maybe we were.
We’dswum for hours, well past sunset, until suddenly we stopped. No one spoke, at least that I could tell. There was nothing around, only scraggly plants scattered here and there, looking like they were desperately searching for light and unable to find any. Again with no apparent communication, after laying their weapons down, each mer chose a plant, wrapped their hands or arms into the tendrils, and curled around it on the ocean floor, presumably to sleep. The twins were the only exception, both of them choosing the same plant in which to nest.
I followed suit. Picking one of the outermost plants, I grasped it by the base and let my body slowly sink down. I’d barely gotten used to sleeping entangled in kelp. This was going to be impossible.
I hadn’t been aware of any light when we’d made camp, but before long, I could no longer make out the others’ forms beside me. As much as I loved the sea, lying on the bottom of the ocean, grasping some damn weed, unable to see or hear anything farther than your hand in front of your face, was an unnerving feeling. If I stretched out, I couldn’t even make out my feet, the darkness devouring my body around my hip area. Needless to say, I kept curled up so I could at least have my entire body where I could see it. How I longed for the days at camp when you could barely sleep because of the camp counselor and some of the kids snoring so loudly. Any form of awareness of the ones around me would have been welcome. As it was, I once again found myself staring into the vastness of a dark eternity alone.
Thehours or minutes stretched out before me in endless oblivion. At some point I must have fallen sleep, because I felt a hand firmly squeeze my shoulder, causing my eyes to shoot open in alarm. There was just enough light to make out a form close to my face. Again, Zef’s slender build gave him away. He motioned with his hand and turned. Hesitating only a moment, I quickly followed before his tail disappeared in the gloom.
Without direction, we gathered in the same formation as the day before and set off at what I had so ignorantly thought was a leisurely pace, but was starting to feel like the never-ending sprint of my life.
If I had to guess, I’d say I slept for less than three-quarters of an hour. I was sore, exhausted, and feeling less hopeful about the hunt than I had yesterday. I hadn’t been aware of any such positive feelings, but if the now cavernous emptiness of such emotion was any indication, there must have been some of it there after all. Not anymore.
Thesun was high overhead when I finally grew a backbone. Using every ounce of reserve strength I had, I pulled my fingers through the water with greater pressure and gradually overtook both Braid and the twins. I pulled up alongside Zef, slowly returning to the predetermined pace.
He looked over at me, his narrow eyes widening. Turning back, he looked up toward Syleen. When she didn’t show any acknowledgement, he returned his gaze to me.
“What is it, Brett?”I wasn’t sure, but I was willing to bet his words had been directed only to me. If ever there was a time I needed to be able to communicate privately, it was now.
