We hit a breaking point just after setting sail. Svelte insisted I eat something from the ship to keep my stomach full. My stubbornness and odd love for Svel's food gave all the reason for me to refuse. While time passed, we sat at tables in on the main base of the ship. Svelte waited for my acceptance of dying hunger. Concerned, he let out a stressful sigh.
"Lix, please, you need food." Svelte insisted, pushing a small bowl of small shriveled up food over.
"Unless you cooked it, I'm not having anything." I pouted like a spoiled child. "You're at fault for this, Svel. I'm a picky eater now."
He gave up, initially taking away the bowl. "We need to eat in dry tastless rations so no one gets sick on the ship. If you don't eat, that is your choice to make."
"Well, are there any that you made yourself?" I asked, watching him take a small bite. "You don't make everyone else do the cooking do you?"
"I have made a few, they're just-" Svelte thought to himself and hesitated to speak. "Wait... What has you so obsessed with my cooking?"
Not even I knew why, I'd only tasted his cooking and knew that it was wonderful. "It the most delicious thing ever?"
"Right..." Svelte walked off to a room and came back out with a bag of chopped bread slices. "Here, but do not devour the entire thing. I want to save these for longer."
I quietly clapped my hands as I received the small bag. My wide obvious smile definitely caught the attention of crew members. "Thank you, Savior Svel!" I whispered happily, chewing on a piece. The amount of delight that cam with confirming this was definitely his food was astonishing. My legs and feet wiggled, I simply couldn't contain myself.
"How is it possible for you to taste anything in that?" Svelte's eyes traced the way I practically licked the crumbs off my fingers. "It should taste dry and yet..."
"It's delicious!" I smiled, giggling with my mouth closed. I placed the rest of the bag in front of him. "Thank you, Svel."
The day was still light, and the smell of the sea somehow didn't bother me. Sudden sounds of clapping and joyful laughter surrounded the ship. Although, it didn't sound like they were on board with us. Svelte glanced over the railing and stood, I watched him walk over and wave down to the water.
"Huh?" I was so confused. "Svel...?" I thought he was going insane but then it clicked in my head and I grabbed my staff. "What's over... there...?" My words trailed off as I could see the mermaids happily waving around to him.
"It's wonderful to see you all are doing well!" Svelte smiled a bit as he yelled to reach them. "Would you like to meet my new acquaintance?" He gestured to me and I looked back and forth as they cheered, asking me to go down.
I was a bit hesitant about it, but by the look Svelte gave off, I could tell this would be okay. "Oh…" I never admit it to myself, but when I looked at the water; somehow I felt scared to jump in. The height from the ship had me swallowing butterflies. The view was making me too nervous and I started shaking.
Svelte could tell something was wrong so he pat my back; snapping me put of it. "You okay?" His calming voice had my body give a slight jolt and released some tension. "Wait right here."
Just a few minutes later, we both happened to be decending from a wooden plank on the outside of the ship. "This is a tad bit better…." I let out a sigh of relief, glad that I didn't have to jump that high.
"Be careful once we get down to the water, I'm not sure if your body is well adjusted for your transformation." He waited for me to plop myself inside first.
I didn't really have much of a choice, I was kind of excited myself to meet nice people. It slowly kicked it once I allowed myself to go in the water, feeling like I was getting refreshed with more energy. My tail quickly formed as bubbles surrounded me, getting most of the air out of my body. The nside of my throat even felt like an extended gurgle. I heard the mermaids surrounding me squealing in awe, but I couldn't understand why.
"You look even prettier with your tail and scales out!" One of them swam closer, her eyes floating around.
A few others did the same, adorned by the shine and glimmer I had when the light reflected off me. It honestly made me a bit uncomfortable, despite being a woman myself I was getting stressed out by being near them. "Uh- I…"
Svelte finally came into the water a little after and saw what was going on. "Ladies, please, give her some space." His hands gently waved the curious mermaids off. "It's not nice to male a newcomer uncomfortable like that."
"Apologies…" They all spoke in unison with sincere intentions spread across their body language.
"Now then," Svelte looked at me and I'd only just then realized; he was shirtless. "Would you like to introduce yourself?" My body couldn't move and I felt my cheeks heating up, it was my first time seeing a man with such toned mucles in person. "Lix?"
"Ah- I am Lixlore, it's a pleasure to meet the three of you." No matter how much I wanted to take the image out my mind, I couldn't help it. My eyes were looking downward into the deep blue of the sea, I seemed too distracted to even realize.
"She's… rather shy." Svelte didn't really know why I was acting like that, knowing how outgoing I was privately with him. "Meeting new people, especially merfolk, takes a toll on her."
As soon as Svelte recommended we probably head back up the ship aoon, we all noticed a good looking merman swimming towards us. "Lord Svelte, I'm glad I caught you before you had to leave again." His eyes glanced at me for a moment, registering my presence.
"This is Lixlore, a recent new acquaintance." Svelte gestured to me and faced the merman. "Is there something troubling you, Feltros?"
I heard them babbling about something connected to the ship, but my mind was wandering. I stared at the light of the sun peering through the water surface. The intricate shapes that consistently flowed made my staring worth the while. Although, it was not to knindly interrupted by Svelte dragging me up to said surface. He helped me get back onto the wooden plank and pulled himself up. I stared at his golden tail, fascinated by the way light bounced off every scale. My mind flashed to the first dream I had seen this tail. The purple in his scales were beautiful too, I couldn't stop staring.
"I'm about to switch back, Lix." Svelte waved his hand in my face. "So, be careful if you'd rather not see my other bare body."
I slightly flinched and looked up at his face. "Oh, sorry-" Immediately, I turned to look away. "So, uhm, I'm guessing you're able to change forms at will...?"
Svelte's clothes ruffled as he quickly dressed himself. "Royalty are trained to, in case of emergency. Such as; fighting off land species or simply when having to run in order to survive."
"That makes sense..." I felt a bit sad hearing that, it's mainly used as a defense mechanism and escaping. It was good to know about it though, one day I'd be doing the same thing.
"I'm all dressed by the way." He lightly tapped my shoulder and I could see him holding another set of clothes.
"Huh?" I was handed them, then realized I was soaked in mine from earlier. "Oh..."
"It wasn't very smart going in with dry clothing." He grinned while saying that, but it was slightly gentle. "If you'd like, I can help you find out how to transform on will. For now though, I'll force it so then you can get dressed faster." He tapped my forehead with two fingers and I could feel the wooden platform being raised.
Svelte picked me up and placed me down inside a private room, allowing me to change in peace. My tail slowly began shifting and separated into my legs. I wiggled my toes to see if they were still moving and I was relieved when they did. 'Hah... This room... It's so cold!' I thought to myself as I changed out my drenched outfit into a bright new one. It was a long blue dress that looked like it had waves all around. 'Cute!' I sat on a bed the entire time after changed, I spread the dress to see it better. I spotted a mirror and looked at it, giggling happily. Rythmic knocks traveled the room and I heard Svelte asking if I was done.
"Yes!" I kept staring into the tall mirror next to me, smiling wide. I turned to him as I heard the door open.
"So, do you..." Svelte's voice trailed off for a moment as his eyes were glued to me. "... like it...?" He got slightly quieter and I thought he'd suddenly become weirded out by the dress.
"Do I look bad in it?" I looked down as I gently pulled the skirt up and scanned myself in the mirror. "I think this looks pretty good."
He cleared his voice and seemed flustered, fiddling with sometime to the side. "Well, we should get going back out…" He noticed my staff wasn't with me and started walking out. "I'll be back." Right when Svelte left, he came back in a flash with my staff in hand.
"Oh, thank you! I completely forgot about it!" I grabbed my staff, slowly getting up from the bed on my own.
Later during the afternoon, we were all eating some "dinner snacks" as they called it. Svelte gave me a similar bag from earlier so then I'd have something in my stomach. Although, I didn't expect to meet a couple new people while I wandered the the food storage with him. Svelte and I were sitting at a table with said others, I became familiar with their names even though they were a tab bit odd. Twins, the one with brown hair was Groishu, he'd normally go by Gro. Then the one with dimples was Hiltshu, he went by Hil. It was honestly a little awkward because I had nothing to contribute yo the conversation. After my invisibility wore off, they started asking questions to include me.
"Say, how'd you get near Svelte? Not very common, such a beauty is rarely seen around those parts. Where we're headed has plenty of gorgeous women." Groishu's thick southern accent seeped through his gritty teeth. It made me scared but I knew he was nice. "Might as well be wedded, you have the blessings of the gods and goddesses!" He cackled at his own comment, while Hiltshu smacked him to stop.
"Oh- I, uhm…" I grew quiet and looked at my tiny bowl of bread pieces.
Svel noticed my shyness. "Please, stop it, you're making her uncomfortable."
"Brother, you know our little Svelte swore to wait until he'd finally taken time for his own personal matters." Hiltshu whispered into his brother's ear before forcing him to bow their heads to me. "Sorry for that, miss Lixlore, excuse my brother's rude intrusive comments." Hiltshu nudged him in the arm and we heard a whince.
"I'm sorry too." Groishu rubbed his arm where he got hit and slightly glared at Hiltshu.
Svelte sighed long after things finally settling down. "Well… boys, how much longer would you say it is going to take?" He nibbled on a piece of bread as he looked at the two.
I zoned back out as their past conversation gradually continued. The only thing I remember was that they spoke about trip being at least 2 days left. My mind was stuck on one thing, "Meet Al Krelin." Of course meeting him woukd probably be defying my original plan to live a smooth life. Although, if he could help me understand even a little I'd be happy. For a monent, I did question myself if it was really necessary to be going this far for a stranger, but I held strong.
"That's right, in few cases there will appear a sea monster in parts of our journey." Hiltshu began rising from his seat, seeing the sky darken. "But there's no need to worry too much about it. As the ones who travel alongside our leader and brother from afar, we serve and protect."
"I appreciate it, Hil, but I feel I may need to protect you all before that." Svelte stood not long after, checking the sky. "I'll be up on the beakhead, call on me if you need anything."
"Oh…" I mumbled and watched as Svelte walked off, climbing ropes to get up high. I reached for my staff to go into the room from before, but I paused as the twins started another questionnaire. I kept my silence as I stayed seated at the table with Gro and Hil. It was a little awkward as the two went on as the two drew attention to me.
"Hey, miss Lixlore." Groishu asked me out of pure curiosity. "Would you be willing to fall for our little Svelte?"
"Brother!" Hiltshu squng another smack to the head and his face was disappointed. "Svelte is going to wait until he finishes his duties as an important lord; emphasis on the important, you and I both know this already…"
I watched the two bicker in front, I figured it was a bit funny, but I'd been confused by the question. "In all honesty…" I decided to finally speak up a bit. "I don't really understand what you mean by that."
I explained to them about how I was shut out from most things in my past. That I would have never known if I even experienced anything that may resemble the love they spoke about. My eyes feel to my hands and my mind suddenyl went blank, a feeling of dread washed over me.
the two were left dumbfounded.
"I'm only 19 years old but I don't think I've every truly understood how love worked." There was this gap of silence until one of the two spoke again.
"You are really one of a kind, miss Lixlore…" Gro scratched his head and looked at me. "If only you'd been more educated…"
"Quit it already, Gro…" Hiltshu's foot began tapping the floor impatiently. "Hurry up, we need to be organizing the storage barrels down below."
"Alright fine, I get it, Hil." Gro quickly scarfed down his chunks of dry bread. "See you later, miss Lixlore!"
"I hope we can speak more another time without making you feel out of place." Hiltshu smiled and waved as he dragged Groishu.
I sat there as I watched them decend through the stairs going down. My eyes gazed up at the calm starry sky. It was beautiful, a small number of stars were clumped together, making me tilt my head. I never saw anything like it before , maybe because the only time I looked at the sky was sunny and cloudy. Looking at where Svelte was, I could tell he seemed to be staring out into the distance. 'He looks so… sad.' I thought to myself, slowly gettingnup with my staff. Finally, I walked back the room from before. Surprisingly , there was a light on inside a glass container. I was able to see while the darkness was faded out. I finally realized that there wasn't actually much inside, just a desk with a few papers and the bed with a couple of pillows. There was a little bear as the corner of my eyes and I stared at it. The faded pastel blue color maked it seem almost white and very old. It only had a button eye, the rest of it was slightly worn but sewn up. Then I spotted the sewing kit hiding behind after I picked it up. 'That's probably Svel's.'
"Actually, now that I think of it, almost everything inside is most likely Svel's." I say. "He's so cool…" I felt the roughness of the bear and felt at how sad was. Missing an eye, as if missing another half. I heard footsteps from behind and I turned to see Svelte at the door I left ajar.
"That was something my mother gave me, before she had passed on." He popped out of nowhere, almost giving me a silent heart attack.
I slightly jumped as his voice reached me. My hands instinctively placed the bear back where it was. I could feel my heart racing the second he appeared. "Svel, you came back down already?" I tried acting natural.
"I will be stargazing…" Svelte turned away and stuttered quietly just enough so I barely heard, yet it was something new. I could see his cheeks flushing pink as the dim light brushed against his skin. Hid face showed little to no emotion but he was still showing a lot more than usual. "Would you like to come back out and join me?"
"I'd love to." I stared at his eyes shimmering in the light, a familiar unfamiliar feeling clouding my mind. My body walked on out as he gestured me to come with.
With these simple motions I caught him doing, I could tell there was a positive change in his attitude towards me. He was finally letting up a bit from the first time we met. Though, by default he helped me out, he looks like more of a savior than just a helper. I remembered the merfolk that are guarding the ship and calmly sighed staring up into the beautiful sky. 'He's just being nice…' My thoughts drifted with the sparkles. I smiled and glanced at Svelte, watching him stare into the sky with this warm look. He turned to me and it might've been instinctively, but he smiled back. It was a small but soft grin, maybe not much of a full smile but it still made me feel nice. I giggled quietly and looked to the stars, happily enjoying the moment.