Shimmer: Journey To Death

Healing Music

     Ley woke me up, her luminous silver eyes still flashing with fragments of anger from last night. I groaned and my head ached. After I went back to sleep I had not dreamt, just slept like a dead man.
     "We are still going shopping, yes?" Ley asked me in her quiet and silky voice. I nodded, not awake enough for words. She hauled me upwards, suprisingly strong for such a small person. I waved her off, wanting to change my clothes, because they were dirty from three days of continuously wearing them. "I know a place where you can bathe first, and then change. Believe me, you need a bath." Ley said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
     The place she led me was in a section built onto the outside of the wall. It looked like they had built the main wall near the bathing area, which was a pool with a waterfall running into it and a stream running away from it, and then built a wall around the pool and removed the section of wall separating the two areas, putting up a blanket for privacy. "No one bathes in the morning here, so you won't be interrupted. I will make sure no one comes in for you if you do the same for me when I bathe. I want to be clean when we leave since it may be a while before my next bath after we leave today," Ley told me. I nodded.
     I took a quick bath, stripping off my dirty clothes and scrubbing the dirt off my skin and hair under the rushing water of the waterfall. I quickly cleaned my dirty clothes, and put on a new set of clothing, a white shirt and black shorts with my soft, tan colored moccasins. I grabbed my drying clothes and pushed past the blanket, letting Ley in. I hung my wet clothes on a line near the entrance of the bathing spot. My clothes were dry when she came out in a sleeveless grey tanktop, blue cotton shorts, and black travel boots, thick soled and worn from use over years.
     We walked to my tent and I grabbed my things, putting my quiver, bow, and satchel on, and my knife in my belt. We walked to Ley's tent, a silver contraption like all the others in camp. She walked in and shuffled around inside for a while, coming back out with a faded backpack and arms full of dresses. I saw many knives strapped to her belt, her wrists, and her ankles. They were all silver, and all but one were made in the same way. I couldn't see any fine details but they were very beautiful weapons.
     We walked to the mercantile area, where Ley sold her dresses and bought clothes better for traveling. She bought more knives and strapped them in her belt and on her arms and legs. I was astonished at the amount of silver daggers she had now. It looked to be at least 17, maybe closer to 21. I didn't try to keep track. She walked with me to the gate, Shimmer by her side and Marmalade by mine. We were sent off by a committee of camp members who were sad to see us go.
     We walked in the direction of the next settlement, a mermaid pod called the Pod of the Yin Yang Streams. It was called this because the camp was made of two streams, one of salt water and the other fresh water, which circled each other like the symbol of good and evil it was named for, little islands in the larger part of both pools. We hoped to find some more companions there.
     We were walking through a field of pale gold grass when I was hit by the stench of death. Demons were close. I slung my bow off my back and strung an arrow from the quiver on the string, pulling it to my cheek and aiming in the direction of the smell. Ley noticed and pulled out two of her daggers. I saw the demon just before it jumped at us. It was hideous, with thick, clumsy hooves and clacking needles for hands, it's skin thick, slimy, and scaled. Then, in midair, it split in two, the new one heading for Ley. I loosed my arrow right between the slitted eyes and into the brain of the one that was coming towards me. It fell to the ground just inches short of me. Ley's demon had hit her, and she was stabbing it in the chest with one knife over and over. She plunged the other knife into it's head and screeched as the thing's blood burned her hand. She wrenched her hand and knife free. Dropping the melting knives she cradled her hand against her chest.
     I picked her up bridal style after putting my bow back on. I jumped on Marmalade's back and called to Shimmer to follow, though she would have followed Ley anywhere. I nugded Marmalade in the side and she leaped into the air, carrying us to the pod quicker than we would have gotten there by walking, taking a few minutes instead of a few hours. I didn't usually ride Marmalade, prefering to stay on the ground, but this was an emergency.
     I slid off her back when we touched the ground, met to my surprise by a very small sphinx, barely 4'3", with malachite green eyes and long black hair. There was a slender mermaid boy next to her, with shaggy black hair and crimson eyes, the sun glinting off his hair in a pattern of thick blue lines on an orange background darkening to black near the ends of his hair in a way reminiscent of a symphysodon discus fish. His eyes went to Ley in my arms, then her blood stained hands which were being dissolved by the demon blood. She had passed out from the pain and was merely whimpering now.
     "Set her down," said the boy. "Will she be okay Sebastian?" the sphinx girl asked. "Yes Jet, she'll be fine. It is not too late," the boy, Sebastian, answered. The sphinx girl looked at me and whispered, "I am Jet." I nodded and told her my name was Colla. She smiled and she my hand, her long black tail lashing with worry. Sebastian took out a lute with swordfish carved into the arms if the instrument. He started playing a song that made me feel like running away. I watched as the blood ran off of Ley's hands. The song changed and her red, blistered hands started to heal, skin regrowing and new ligaments being formed. Her face calmed and she opened her eyes, looking around for me. She smiled toothily when she saw me. She sat up and hugged me.
     "Thank you for saving my hands Colla. They are very important to me. I would not be able to defend myself without them," Ley thanked me. I just nodded. She thanked Sebastian as well. He nodded and smiled. Jet and Sebastian lead us into the camp, introducing us to the leader of the camp, a blonde willowy woman with bright blue eyes. When the sunlight hit her hair, it created a pattern like a candy basslet, blue stripes on an orange background. Her name was Moriah Gratonad, but for some reason Jet called her Willow. She invited us to stay for a few days to recover. We accepted.
     Ley took a nap for a few hours, and when she woke up we walked around camp. We wandered over to the freshwater pool, watching the mermaids as they played games in the water. A young mermaid came up to us changing from her goliath tiger fish beastia to her humanaria. She was very strong, leanly muscled from swimming all her life. She had red eyes and brown hair that let of a olive and silver pattern in the sunlight.
     "I am Teigra Fiske, daughter of this pod's delta. What are you doing?" the young girl said, her jaw opening and shutting definitively with her words like fish. She looked about 16. A kraken rose out of the water behind her, electric blue and well over twenty feet tall. "We are traveling, trying to find companions." I told Teigra. "Why do you need more companions when you already travel with each other?" she inquired. I bit my lip. "Well, the truth is I am often attacked by demons, and I can not protect myself against large numbers of them. I aim to find a companion from each race." I told her. "Intresting," she said, "would you like me to come with you?" I was caught off guard by her suggestion. I couldn't find my words, so I just nodded. I couldn't fathom why show would want to come with me when I was beset by demons as I was. She smiled, saying, "I have always wanted to travel. Mom said I could go when I turned 16, but I hadn't decided where to go. I will just get my things and we can go." "We are leaving tomorrow, actually," I told her. "Oh ok. Then let me show you where you can stay." she said in response.
     She showed us two tents, side by side. They were grey and waterproof. I realized her kraken had followed us across the grass. Most mermaids had a pet kraken which was capable of fitting in any body of water, no matter it's size or the kraken's size. Teigra's was no exception. She noticed me staring at it and said, "Don't worry about Goliath. He won't hurt you unless you hurt me." I nodded. Then we realized we hadn't introduced ourselves and did so. She smiled and said, "A pleasure to meet you Colla and Ley." She let us set our things in our tents and led us to hers, by the freshwater pool. It was olive colored with swirls of silver shot through it. She told us if we needed anything before we left tomorrow to come her and get her.
     We ate some of my food for dinner and talked about where to go next. "Shimmer boy, have you given her a ring yet?" Ley asked me. I hadn't and smacked my forehead for being an idiot. I grabbed the teal koi fish ring and took it to Teigra's tent. I called out to see if she was in. She was and I walked in and gave her the ring, explaining what it was and what it did. I invited her to talk with Ley and I in order to decide our next destination. Before we went to sleep we decided to go to the nearest loner group, about two days north of here. When I went to sleep Marmalade was by my side and I could hear Shimmer breathing in Ley's tent. I fell asleep listening to Ley's breathing even out and Marmalade's steady heartbeat in my ears.

-_________________________________________-

Hello readers and happy Halloween! People used to carve turnips today instead of pumpkins(just a fun fact). Hope you liked it! What do you think of Teigra and the mermaids. Also if you want, I may start a branch series of the Pod of the Yin Yang Streams, because I thought of this pod and Jet and Sebastian in a dream before I started posting my story. It would be a story of how they met. Thanks for reading and see you next week my lovely readers. Also up at the top is a drawing I did before I started Wattpad of a pocket harp and a lute, the mermaids' "weapon" if choice. Females use pocket harps and males use lutes. :)