by Aaron Crash
She was still kicking herself for not being nicer to the barbarian on the beach. They could’ve had a moment. They might have even had sex if she hadn’t lost her temper when he’d mentioned moving into the Zoo.
And here it was, five days later, and the mermaid’s life was upside down, with old roommates moving out and new roommates moving in.
Charibda wouldn’t miss Belissina, the kaif-addicted church girl who was at the Chapel of the Tree most of the time anyway. She would, however, miss Zorynda Gold, a Fayee girl who kept the place smelling sweet with her fairy scent. As for the others? She barely remembered their names. Some moved out. Some moved on. Some graduated.
The Zoo was located on the southern part of campus, in the Moons housing. There were eight bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen. The collection of rambling rooms, connected by both staircases and ladders, hung down the side of the cliffs. The windows showed amazing views of StormCry, the AngelTeeth Islands, and the StormLight lighthouse.
Charibda lived in the suite at the bottom, the best room, and the biggest, with the most privacy. She would’ve moved out, but she loved the views of the ocean. No other apartment on campus could compare. Also, the bathroom was just above her, which made it very convenient.
The mermaid hated the change, but there were certain advantages. For one thing, Charibda wouldn’t miss listening to Fryla Walker, a big girl from the Farmington collective, get fucked by one of the Flow orc students, Erigg Bloogg.
But would Ymir be any less quiet? Charibda didn’t think so.
Lugging the big table, Tori flashed a sweaty smile. “Come on, Ribby. If you’re going to follow me around pouting, you might as well help out. You wanted to become friends with us. This is perfect.”
It should’ve been. And yet, Charibda was having trouble imagining a life where she’d fit in anywhere outside the Blue Dark. She’d have to change, but she wasn’t sure if she could. And after years of pushing people away, how could she draw them in?
Tori set the table down in her new room, which was a collection of furniture, gears, compounds, potions, and a half-built Alchemy Rack. She’d also taken the room across the way, which she’d filled with her various projects. Tori always had so many projects.
Outside in the kitchen, Charibda heard Lillee whispering something and Jennybelle laughed loudly. Then there was Gatha’s big booming footsteps as she came in through the front door, stomped through the kitchen, and then marched down the steps to her room.
Charibda was afraid to go out and face them. They would laugh at her, and she would respond inappropriately.
Ymir came in grunting, and the mermaid could smell his sweat. It got her heart pumping faster. Something about him was so strange, yet intoxicating. This sex outside of water would be so very weird—it would take her a long time to get used to even the idea of it. It wouldn’t be all dry, though, and she felt a tingle go through her.
Tori turned. “Ribby, where’d you go? You’re a million miles away. You okay?”
The mermaid pulled up the shimmering material of her gown to twist her hands through the cloth. She did that sometimes. “I’m mad that you didn’t talk to me. Or you did, but I didn’t listen. So I guess I should be mad at myself. Tori, how can you be so friendly all the time? What’s your secret?”
Tori wiped sweat from her forehead. Her hair was a little wild. “Well, I like people, Rib. I like to hear their stories, I like to get to know them, and I like how they can surprise you. Like you, for instance. I had no idea you could dance like you did at the Summernight Festival.”
Charibda made sure to keep her voice even. “Thank you. I loved the dancing. It feels so different on land. We were close to the musicians, so I could feel the music better, and that helped.”
Tori went to her friend and held the mermaid’s hand. “Look, Rib, you’re trying. We appreciate that. Let me give you a couple pieces of advice, which you can ignore, sure, but I’ve found they’ve helped me make friends. And as you know, I’m basically friends with everyone, even the other Morbuskor who can hardly stand to look at me.”
“Why?” the mermaid asked. “You’re so pretty.”
“Not to them,” Tori said darkly. “But this helped me even with the other dwarves. Always try to be helpful. People like a helpful girl. I’ll tell you what, work has kept me sane in this life, and people appreciate it because most folks have so much to do. The other thing? Listen more than you talk. Most people are dying for someone to hear them, really hear them. If you can do those two things, you’ll do all right.”
Charibda couldn’t help but sputter. “But...but...but I’m royalty! I shouldn’t have to do much work, and I certainly shouldn’t be serving anyone. They should be serving me! They should be listening to me!”
Tori chuckled. “Oh, Ribby, you crack me up. If folks around you had a better opinion of mermaids, you being royalty might matter more. As it is? You’re reinforcing their prejudice.”
Charibda took a deep breath. “I will try this scheme of yours. Listen to other people’s blather. Offer to help. It feels like it will fail. But I will try.”
She left Tori’s room, which was just off the kitchen, and ran into Lillee. “Can I help you, Lillee Nehenna? I am trying to be helpful. I don’t like to carry things, and I am not good at decorating since we aren’t underwater. I will try to listen to you while you talk, and I’ll try not to lose my temper.”
Gatha came marching up through the kitchen. She gave Charibda a grunt and kept moving.
There was no way she and Gatha would ever get along. They might as well have come from two different worlds. In truth, they had.
“How come Gatha can be such a bitch and get away with it?” Charibda asked under her breath.
Lillee heard it. “Gatha loves us. And she knows we love her in return. She can be brusque. We had trouble at first, but we’ve grown closer over the past months. That could happen with you, Charibda.”
The mermaid felt suddenly shy. She glanced down. “You can call me Ribby. I’m growing accustomed to the moniker. Just don’t call me Ribrib. Not to my face at least.”
“Ribby it is,” Lillee said. “I took the rooms above yours.”
Charibda knew it. “Yes, yes, yes. I forced Tori to tell me where everyone would be. Tori has two rooms up here off the kitchen. Gatha is in the second-floor room to the right, and Jennybelle has the other room on the left with the bathroom in-between them. And then there’s you, above me, with your bedroom to the right and your art room to the left, again, separated by the bathroom.” The mermaid paused. She could ask the elf girl a question and listen to the answer. “I didn’t know you do art. Do you like to do this art?”
Lillee nodded, blushing.
While Charibda had little time for dirt worms and the things they did, she did enjoy their more creative endeavors. Under the water, there was sculpture, certainly, but sketching was all but unknown. As was painting.
“Can I see your work?” Ribby asked.
Lillee’s smile was so beautiful it took away the mermaid’s breath. It was like her soul was shining through her skin. Those green eyes positively sparkled.
Then Jennybelle came in, carrying part of their bed and obviously having trouble.
Lillee leapt to help.
Charibda felt the urge to shout at the swamp woman. The mermaid and the elf girl were becoming friends, and Jenny was ruining everything with her insipid need to move furniture into their house.
Instead, the mermaid swallowed her anger. She asked, “Can I help?”
“Yes, please!” Jennybelle gasped.
Between the three women, they managed to carry the headboard—that was what they called the top of the bed in this world. An Aquaterreb bed net was far lighter and easier to carry, and so comfortable. It kept you safe and steady as the ocean currents rocked you, back and forth, in the dark, in the depths, warmed by your own inner fire.
Ymir saw them struggling, and he grabbed the headboard, single-handedly, and put it in Tori�
�s old room. Gatha then came down with an even bigger piece of the bed, her green muscles straining, her face glowing with perspiration.
Charibda found the she-orc both intimidating and intriguing. What would it be like to be involved in a sex knot with her? What would it be like to be with a she-orc, wild, free, and uninhibited? The mermaid had heard stories that it was an almost violent experience, and that with the pleasure came a certain amount of pain. She was fascinated with such power exchanges during sex.
Gatha noticed the mermaid staring. She slammed the bed down. “What are you looking at?”
Charibda could not suffer such a bestial woman being rude to her. “I can look wherever I want. My eyes happened to linger on you. Perhaps because I couldn’t tell if you were pretty or not, with how big and smelly you are.”
Gatha burst out laughing, showing those tusks. Did that mean she was about to attack? Charibda readied herself, shifting her balance because on the land you had to lower your center of gravity. She fisted her hands.
The she-orc sniffed her own armpits. “I smell like fucking roses. As far as pretty? Ymir likes fucking me, so I can’t be too ugly.”
Charibda had a choice. She could storm away. She could lash out. But the she-orc had given her a chance to change. Instead of violence, Gatha had joked. Charibda didn’t have a very good sense of humor, but she could try. “You are pretty, Gatha, but not because Ymir thinks so. He’s a clansman. He fucks elk. He has a special stool he uses.”
There was a moment of silence. The mermaid was breathing hard, and she was about to go storming away. Instead, Jennybelle laughed first, then Tori, and finally Lillee. Gatha didn’t laugh, but she did retract her tusks and smile at the Aquaterreb princess. “You made a joke. I thought it was impossible. And I saw you prepare yourself for a fight. Perhaps there is more to you than snoring and being an unlikeable cunt.”
Gatha turned and stomped up the steps to get more of her things. Which, from what the mermaid could tell, were mostly weapons. She slept on a rough mattress stuffed with straw. The sheets were rough-spun cotton, little more than sacking material. She was a hard woman, but Charibda had taken a step to winning her over.
“I can show you my sketches,” Lillee said to the mermaid.
Jennybelle raised her eyebrows. “We got a lot of work, Lil. Maybe later.”
Tori nodded at Charibda.
“Can I help you all move in?” The mermaid said each word carefully, as if she were speaking Pidgin for the first time.
Ymir nodded at her and walked up the steps.
Tori sighed. “Yes, Ribby, you can help us. There’s so much work to do! And I still have to get over to the feasting hall to help with dinner. Good thing I’m a girl who likes to work.”
Charibda wasn’t such a girl, but if she was going to make a life for herself at Old Ironbound, if she wanted to end her lonely nights, she would help these women move in. She would listen to their boring stories and pretend to laugh at their sometimes terrible jokes.
Oddly enough, helping her new roommates move in proved to be the best day she’d had in years. Maybe ever.
They ended the moving day in the feasting hall, eating cheesy bread and drinking beer. Charibda kept quiet and listened as Jennybelle and Gatha sparred, and Ymir added the odd joke, while Lillee kept glancing at the mermaid.
Charibda smiled at the elf girl, who smiled back. The mermaid felt like it was only the two of them, until Tori came over, and it was the three of them. The dwab was taking a break from the kitchen.
Hope filled the mermaid. This could really be the start of something.
That night, she lay in her bed, an actual bed and not a net, and it was comfortable enough, warm enough, with several big blankets. Even in the summer, it was cool at night when the fog came in. She liked how this upper world had defined seasons that were similar to the Blue Dark but different. Summer, autumn, winter, and spring weren’t so different than the warm current season, the cold current season, the storm season, and the peaceful season. Each came like clockwork, giving their life a rhythm, only it wasn’t just the water, but the animals that migrated through as well.
Lights flickered out in Angel Bay, some fisherman hurriedly bringing his boat in. Then the StormLight lighthouse would send its rays across the dark water. The lighthouse gave her some comfort, and Charibda wasn’t sure why.
She’d hired a few scholars to help decorate her room. Distorted mirrors gave their reflections waves, making it seem like any light was underwater. Curtains hung to the floor in pools, not unlike kelp. She had her desk where she did her studying, and there were books there. Of course, the Aquaterreb could read, though books weren’t as popular. Again, the limits of water. She had grown up reading the histories of her people on fire scrolls, which burned in the darkness of the depths.
Lying in bed, she heard someone cry out in ecstasy. She couldn’t tell which of Ymir’s women was so vocal with their orgasm. The bed frame squeaked rhythmically. Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. It wasn’t as bad as her former roommates, when Erigg Bloogg had ravished Fryla Walker. That had been so annoying. Charibda had laid awake, praying for the orc to come already.
But Ymir and his sharreb? She longed to be a part of them. She considered going up there, naked, and getting on the bed with them. From their day together, Lillee would be receptive. Tori? Charibda wasn’t sure about the dwab. The mermaid was certain that neither Gatha nor Jennybelle would welcome her.
Ymir hadn’t immediately wanted her, and he might not want her at all.
Listening to the cries, to the thumping bed, Charibda closed her eyes. Tears leaked down her face. Perhaps she should leave the school. Perhaps she should beg her mother for some clemency. She could never be the ambassador her mother wanted her to be.
Someone screamed something. Then there was grunting, deep-throated, and that had to be Ymir. He was on top of one of the women, surely, he had to be, and he was coming in them. They didn’t need to worry about getting pregnant. Pregnancy was a rarity, for the land people, for the Aquaterreb, for everyone except for the dwarves.
Charibda was naked. Of course she was, she always slept naked. She thought about trying this chitub business. She held her breasts, but they were her breasts and not something that turned her on. Perhaps her ohi—that was what the elves called her special spot at the top of her womanly shell. Some called it their clam, but Charibda had never liked that. Clams weren’t all that attractive, and she’d always found oheesies pretty in their own way. Again, the elven word. The elves were obsessed with sex. Everyone knew it. That was why they wore their forearm cuffs.
Charibda didn’t have pubic hair, not like the land people. So it was easy to find her clit, right between her lips. Listening to Ymir fucking his sharreb had made her wet. Even under the water, her sex would moisten, getting her ready for a thick uht to fill her up. Ymir had a big cock. She’d heard the women talk about him. How big?
She tried picturing it, tried picturing him with her in bed, but he wasn’t in bed. She was alone, touching herself. She wanted someone else to touch her. She’d tried chitub before, and it never worked. She could never let go of this idea that she was a princess, and that hundreds of women and men wanted to service her. In the past, she’d had sex with a dozen people at the same time, eleven women and the one man, who had swum through the knot of fucking mermaids to get to her, because she was Charibda Delphino. She was special.
Charibda finally gave up. She slipped out of bed, naked and frustrated, and found the bottle of wine she kept in her desk. She poured a glass, pulled a chair to the wide window of her suite, and watched as the fisherman rowed his little boat to StormCry’s docks.
Then she heard a creaking above her. That would be Lillee, having left Ymir’s bed, but for what reason?
Charibda felt both miserable and alone. She needed to reach out. Lillee was awake. She was singing softly. From the sound of it, the elf girl wasn’t in her bedroom, but in her art room.
The mermaid spent fifteen sec
onds deciding what to do. Then she got up, retrieved her dressing gown, and climbed the ladder up to the trapdoor. She knocked. She heard a shocked gasp, and the door was opened for her.
Charibda prayed to the watery roots of the Tree of Life, to the Tree’s moss hanging into the ocean, to the endless rains sweeping across the world, that Lillee would meet her with kindness.
The mermaid needed kindness, yes, but she also needed something else, and she felt that need keenly.
Chapter Fourteen
LILLEE SMILED WARMLY. “Ribby! This is such a sweet surprise. I didn’t even know there was a trapdoor there.”
Charibda’s first inclination was to tease the elf girl. She bit back her initial response because there was a good chance it would come out as an attack. “The Zoo has all sorts of ladders and staircases. I heard you up here, singing. I know it’s late and you had a long day, but would you mind me coming up?”
“Not at all.” Lillee stepped back.
The mermaid princess climbed the rest of the way into the room. Sunfire candles flickered on holders fixed to the elf girl’s art table. A variety of sketches were already pinned to the plaster walls. Ymir and his harem had just moved in, but Lillee had been busy. Each drawing was so perfect, so delicately sketched, that Charibda found herself spellbound.
Lillee herself seemed like a work of art. Her gown was as sheer as Charibda’s and her hard nipples were visible. But the elf girl had her forearm cuff on, so she couldn’t be feeling sexual. Besides, it was just the one girl. It would be chitub, and Charibda had already tried that. Perhaps, though, things would be different with a new person, depending on how wild and free that person could be.
Charibda stopped. She was looking at a wonderful picture of her own mother, Beryl Delphino, the new Ocean Mother Divine for the Delphino family. In the sketch, her mother was smiling, turned to the side, with such love on her face.
The mermaid pointed. “My mother...I didn’t expect to see her. Who is she looking at?”