Thief of Twilight

Part Two: Chapter 52

I stared at the mermaid with wide eyes. She didn't appear to be pleased with having saved my life. My hand tightened around my wound.

The mermaid lowered her eyes to my wound before climbing off of me.

"...Thank you..." I slowly got to my feet.

"You know, you should be more careful human. Do you have any idea how dangerous the forest is?"

"...Sorry..." my stomach let out a monstrous growl.

"What the fuck!" the mermaid scrambled back into the water. "What the fuck was that!"

"I'm sorry..." I looked down. "I haven't eaten in a while I guess..." I can't even remember the last time I had something to eat.

"...You made that sound? A human?"

I heaved a sigh.

"Here, follow me human." the mermaid gestured for me to follow her along the river. "We will go to my home. Jeez. Humans are so stupid. They can't even fend for themselves." she swam along the river guiding me to a cave hidden behind a waterfall. Lush moss clung to the rocks. Just behind the waterfall was a large pool with a rocky shore. There were many wooden chest and barrels along the walls. I couldn't even begin to imagine what she had in her possession. Probably sunken treasure from shipwrecks off the coast.

"Here, hold on." she pulled herself out of the water before crawling towards a barrel. She rummaged around a bit muttering to herself.

I kept my eyes on the water, only to see that there was a small stream that led from the pool to the back of the cave. My eyes darted to the rocky ceiling.

"Here we go." she pulled out a net of fish. "I caught them today! She untangled the net and held out a raw fish. "Here!"

"...I would prefer to cook it...over a fire..." I said.

"Huh?" she narrowed her eyes. "Why would you do that? It's a fish! Just eat it!"

"I...can't eat raw fish..."

The mermaid huffed as she crossed her arms.

"I just prefer to cook it over a fire. Would you mind if I made a fire?"

"Jeez, you humans are so needy." she pointed to a pile of wood behind her. "Go make that fire you need. But I'm going to eat my fish raw like it should be eaten!"

Walking to the pile of wood, I tossed them into a pile before working on the fire. It took a while since I am normally accompanied by a fire mage who can just start a fire with a snap of the finger. Once there was a bit of smoke, I blew on it encouraging the flame to grow. Once the flame turned into a fire of decent size, I held the fish over the fire.

"That's how you do it?" the mermaid asked.

I looked over my shoulder to see the mermaid eating her raw fish.

"It looks stupid."

"If I had a spear or knife...something sharp to hold it-."

The mermaid tossed me a knife. "Like this?"

"...Y-Yeah...like that..." I stuck the knife through the fish and held it over the fire. "Thank you..." she sure has a weird collection of...necessary items for a mermaid. I placed a hand over my wound.

"What happened to your arm? Why are you holding it like that?"

I looked down at my arm only to quickly look away. "The girl you killed...she shot an arrow at me. It grazed me..."

"Oh, I see..." the mermaid leaned forward. "But...why did you turn away from it like that?"

"I don't like the sight of blood..."