Beast Conquests

Chapter 5: Homesick

She'd been quiet for days.

In the cave she resided in, the only creature she let inside was Azul and yet even he barely spent enough time with her. He brought her meals he roasted by the beach since she couldn't stomach raw seafood.

Most of the time, he brought back fruits he found on island forests. Mirabella spent most of her time lost in her own thoughts. Still, even as days passed the sense of shock remained as clear as day.

Everyone else saw what Azul did for her and automatically assumed that he was going to be chosen or rather, she would choose him for her first husband.

But as the days turned into weeks the soul bond never manifested.

Azul was responsible for her. He hunted for her, fed her and guarded her but most of all, he comforted her. All without expecting nothing in return.

Mirabella knew, to an extent that somehow she was in a different reality. She just refused to believe. As if denying it would change anything.

Azul was someone Mirabella had gotten used to. He was the one she asked questions of. He was the person who gave her the feeling of security in the strange world she fell into.

Twice a day, in the morning and afternoon she asked him to bring her out of the cave and to a small, deserted island so she could bathe in the waterfalls.

Mirabella had five sets of clothing. Two of them made from animal hide Azul had traded for with salt from land beasts that came to bargain by the shore. The other two made from a mesh that was a type of seaweed that grew by the corals.

It was the closest in comparison to modern clothes, partly felt like silk and partly rayon stitched together with sinews of dead sea tortoise.

She loved the piece of clothing even if it was hanging straight like a sack cloth. During that time, Mirabella did nothing as if she were on vacation but her mind was always lost in thought.

Azul knew and he said nothing.

For him, it didn't matter if Mirabella kept to herself for years or their current days remained as they were. In fact, he would have preferred so.

Watching over her, bringing her to an island. Making fire and cooking as she went to bathe. Azul thanked all the times he had wondered on land.

It was peaceful. Even if it was dull.

However, he couldn't deny the fact that her silence was heartbreaking. He saw how she struggled with herself but he couldn't bring himself to comfort her the way a husband would.

He felt the distance she out between them. Her lost gaze out to the horizon, the inattentiveness and the fear always floating on her face.

It was subtle and she tried to hide it but Azul could see it. At the very least, he had the tact not to leave. Because he didn't know how to deal with females, he did the one thing he knew that would serve as a comforting gesture.

He never pressured her or asked her to take him to be her husband because it was clear by the way she spoke to him and acted around him that she wasn't ready. That she had other things in mind.

Mira sat quietly on a log as she watched the calm waves of the ocean, extending as far as her eyes could see.

The fine grains of white sand on the beach were just like the sand on Boracay beach that she had gone to with her sister multiple times. Even the salty taste of sea water was the same.

The sea was blue, trees had green leaves, the feeling of the blowing wind felt the same.

Except that it wasn't.

There were two suns in the sky. The northern sun and the southern sun. A merman, who could transform his tail into legs and was practically naked with only part of his chest and his crotch languidly covered by silk like cloth was roasting fish for dinner right behind her.

It was a completely different world.

She was an outsider, all alone in the world.

Foreign and rough. As she looked at the sky, Mira smiled to see fluffy white clouds only to wince seeing two suns shining overhead.

She thought of her home but somehow her heart felt hollow and yet it was heavy in her chest. The gnawing feeling of loneliness came creeping up.

Mirabella didn't keep track of how many had passed since she arrived at that strange world. Whether it was because of denial or acceptance, she wasn't sure herself.

That night, she lay in the sea weed bed in a fetal position. Hugging her knees to her chest, her head tucked down. She felt small, really small and vulnerable.

It wasn't cold, but there wasn't enough warmth. Not unlike sue was used to in her own bed with her fluffy blankets and fluffed up pillows.

In that world, even the bed that was quite soft was a luxury. No warm blankets to provide a layer of the feeling of safety nor pillows that were a resting place for her weary head.

The many every day things Mirabella was used to disappeared in a puff of smoke and all of a sudden she found herself trying to make do with the things offered to her.

Hides and food and a world almost akin to the Stone Age.

She wanted to cry. The cave was moist and barely as bright as she wanted. There were rippling lights coming from the mouth of the cave.

'I miss home.'

She was aware of the countless mermen swimming by occasionally trying to catch a glimpse of her, or worse interact with her. Countless gifts would he left by the mouth of the cave.

Whether prey or skin or pearls or shiny things they thought would appease her. But it only made her feel worse. Sea sick, in a sense.

As she curled up there, Mirabella trembled. She was alone in the dark. Confused and scared.

Her bare feet felt sensitive, in the back of her mind she imagined some creature popping up and grabbing her feet and dragging her somewhere. Like a recurring nightmare.

But the reality of her situation was much more severe.

'I don't know how much longer Azul can protect me.'

Before she went to sleep, the tribal chief had gone to see her. Mira knew it'd be a matter of time before they asked her of something since their tribe was sheltering her.

He had asked her, although to Mira it felt more of a command and a threat, to pick a husband. Of course, as Azul had explained to her females had all the right to choose their spouse.

It was rather the males who fought for the right to even be looked at. Ferocious fights.

Just as she had the right to choose, she was also free to pick a husband at her own leisure. In her own time.

But it all felt so suffocating and unreal. Mira squeezed her eyes shut and kept telling herself that everything was a bad dream.

'I'll wake up soon. Please, let me wake up soon.'