Black spots swam in Marinus’ vision. His tail was marred with breaks all over. Theanore brought the spoon with the soup to his chapped lips, and he ate it greedily. Even the murder muffins could sense that Marinus was in a bad place now.

They were curled under his left arm, and they provided him with warmth and comfort. He was grateful for them, and he swore that he was going to give them a Mundyd steak each once this was done.

“System, how much longer?” He asked weakly. A dry caught broke through his throat and some of the soup he ate escaped him. Theanore wiped it away with a handkerchief. She was crying again, but Marinus didn’t have the strength to wipe her tears.

One more hour left.

Had it really been this long? Well, he could do it. But he needed to distract himself. He needed to make Theanore happy again.

“Thea, where do you want to go once I get legs?” He asked, his breath hitched in the middle of the sentence, but he soldiered on.

“Once you get legs, you are going to rest! Or else I won’t talk to you for a month,” said Theanore, frowning at Marinus. Despite the pain, Marinus reached up with his right hand and petted her strawberry-blonde curls.

“Ok, doctor Theanore. I will rest. Do I get some cuddling too? For my healing?” He tried to tease, and he heard a sniffle coming from Theanore.

“If cuddling can make you feel better, then I will cuddle you after you eat your soup. You have to eat the whole pot. Doctor’s orders,” she placed another spoon to his lips and he opened them to eat the soup within.

It was a good soup. With Mundyd meat and mushrooms. This time there was no nettle, and Marinus was grateful for it. Theanore didn’t know that she had to cook the nettle for longer than she did. It would have burned his throat even more than it already was.

“Do you want me to tell you about what I got up to before I came here?” Asked Marinus after eating another spoonful. The spoon hit metal as it made the journey to be filled again, and Marinus grinned. Once the soup was eaten, he would get to cuddle his nymph for the very first time.

“Let me guess: You chased after seahorses and juggled lobsters?” Asked Theanore. Marinus grinned further. Seahorses were tricky to chase, and juggling lobsters was harder than it sounded. Especially since he had to get out of the water to do so.

“Well, yes, that too. Have I ever told you about that one time I escaped Whitetooth the shark?” Said Marinus and when he saw Theanore’s confused look he realized she didn’t know what a shark was.

“A shark is a big, stinky, fish,” Said the merman as he watched Theanore’s little nose scrunching up at the last part. “It has a jaw as big as my torso and rows upon rows of teeth. And Whitetooth was the strongest shark among sharks. The ruler of this stretch of the sea.”

“And you escaped him?” Asked Theanore with wonder. Something with such a big jaw sounded like it could gobble her in a single bite!

“It wasn’t easy. It all happened last spring as Whitetooth came back from the breeding grounds. And Whitetooth is a she, actually.”

Marinus collected pearl oysters to trade with some mermaids he had seen living in the Mangrove forest by the coast. They really liked them. A mermaid with pearls in her hair was a lovely sight.

He’d gift them to be accepted for a couple of months. The mermaids were more accepting than their mermen mates. He had hopes that one day one would adopt him and keep him around to raise. But the hope he had was small. Smaller than the pearls the oysters produced.

He passed by a wonderful coral reef that hadn’t been there last week. It had bubble-like domes, and it was colored red and white. Marinus carefully searched for peal oysters in its base. He found one and placed it in a bag he had stolen from a human ship.

It was usually hard to get some plunder from the ships if you hadn’t participated in the attack. Marinus never did. He had no problem with hunting for his survival, but killing humans to steal from them was another thing.

Marinus always took the small things. Bags and bracelets, made of common metals or cloth, to trade with the different colonies. He had found early on that if he could feel magic on the bracelets, he could get more from them.

Currently, he had a copper bracelet in his bag. It had an enchantment that protected the wearer from fire. Humans were silly like that. They went out at sea and feared fire. Silly creatures.

He didn’t know which colony would take such a useless thing. Maybe the magic could be drained from the bracelet? The enchantment wasn’t strong, but it could still be used to power something else.

As the merman was thinking about what he could get for the pearls and the bracelet, he didn’t see a shadow pass over him. But he did feel a change in the air current.

Looking up, he managed to swim to the left just in time before a set of fangs dug into him. It was Whitetooth! Normal sharks had yellowish fangs. Whitetooth had pearly white fangs.

Swimming frantically, Marinus dived and dodged and swam through seaweed. It slowed down Whitetooth, but it slowed down Marinus too. Then his tail caught in a crack between two coral reefs.

Marinus tried to tug it out. Seeing the distressed merman, Whitetooth slowed down. She was certain of his victory and of his meal. Then something bubbled underneath the stony coral.

The merman looked down to see many bubbles going out of a big chasm. There was something like a cylinder beneath him, and there was something red and shining in it.

Thinking quickly, after he noticed the warmer water around the cylinder, Marinus dug into his bag and took out the fireproof bracelet. He put it on and with a final tug, he freed his tail.

He didn’t swim away, though. Furthermore, he knew that he couldn’t swim faster than Whitetooth. Pretending to still be caught by the corals, he angled his body over the warm cylinder. He covered it.

The heat was unbearable, and he gritted his teeth to not scream. He could feel the pressure building up in the cylinder, and he knew that if he didn’t have the bracelet, he would have cooked alive.

Whitetooth was upon him and just as the shark tried to do the finishing blow Marinus swam to the side, and he let the pressure of the warm cylinder explode right into the shark’s open maul.

The shark had blood pouring out its maul in thick streams. The water colored red around it, as if an octopus has spilled its ink. Marinus didn’t wait to see if Whitetooth would follow him. He swam away to the pained noises of the shark.

“Mari, you have to be more careful. What if Whitetooth is still around? She will remember you!” Said Theanore from her spot under Marinus’ arm. A pair of legs had replaced the merman’s tail. He felt better now, albeit sleepy.

“Whitetooth is probably dead now. Her maul got burned pretty badly. Goodnight, Theanore.”

But unknown to them both, a shark with white fangs and a scarred maul swam towards the breeding grounds to the south.