Her Beasts Volume Four

Mermaid Tribe

It took a while, but Birk eventually ran into one of Pearl's mates. When he returned to their camp with Pearl's family in tow, Birk looked quite nervous as he slowly began to tear their camp down. A rather confused Iris looked wearily at Birk as she went to ask

"What's going on?"

Pearl laughed amusedly as she explained

"I didn't realize you all would show up so far away from where the river ends. You are much further out than you need to be, so you'll have to move camp to make it easier for my brother and the others to travel over for the negotiations.

While we don't live directly next to the river, we don't like to live this far out either. The river makes travel faster for us and those who visit our tribe need drinkable water."

Iris looked embarrassed as she replied

"Oh, I didn't know. I don't really know what to expect regarding your living environment besides it being in the ocean, so we, kind of, just traveled in a straight line and then made camp to wait for you."

When Iris went to help break down camp, Basil pushed her away gently with his fox tail, gesturing that they could handle it and she should talk with her friend. Iris walked closer to the ocean side before sitting down so she could more easily talk with Pearl.

"Does your brother know that we are coming?"

Pearl laughed, her melodic voice easily carrying, even despite the crashing waves.

"Oh, yes. We actually made good time in getting here and I was able to inform him of your arrival yesterday. We don't exactly live deep in the ocean, you know, most of us don't have strong enough bodies to withstand the difficulties of traveling that far down. Since males don't like to live too far from females of their tribe, we naturally tend to gather together and live as you do on the surface. We have homes of various sorts and live together in groups with only a few of us living further out."

Iris nodded as she looked thoughtful. It sounded like the mermaid tribe lived in the top to middle layers of oceans due to the ocean pressure being too much for most of them. Iris supposed this made sense since they did have a more human top half and their organs wouldn't really have any protection against such things. It was likely that the oxygen in the water also decreased as they went further down. Perhaps, the stronger males might be able to dive deeper thanks to the unnatural strength they possessed, but it made sense for the mermaid tribes to base things around what was comfortable for their females and young ones.

"How are we supposed to carry out the negotiations then? Will your brother be alright with coming up on the land for that?"

Pearl nodded as she replied

"Mermaid tribes tend to grow slightly larger in size than most land-based tribes I've heard of. We are really closer in size to a small city thanks to the abundance of natural resources and lack of predators. So my brother does tend to get a bit busy from time to time, but I think he still has things a bit easier than your mate. Most people sort out their own homes and there is very little conflict or issues to sort out on a day-to-day basis. So, my brother is fully willing to set aside some time for you to talk with him."

Iris was relieved that things seemed to be going so smoothly. It was really fortunate to have Pearl around to make things easier.

Despite how frustrating it was to have to tear down their camp and rebuild it, Iris's mates hid any frustration they might have been feeling quite well. Basil carried the large pot with him as he climbed onto Birk's back and followed along with Ember and Iris. Iris was quite impressed by just how quickly Pearl and her mates could swim through the ocean. Pearl didn't even need the help of her mates as she was a fast swimmer and easily swam through the ocean. Iris knew it was possible that Pearl's mates were slowing down to match her speed, but it was still a sort of freedom and independence that few females had a tendency to enjoy on land.