【R76】Tide wave

The moray eel seems to be smiling, its eyes squeezed into two thin and long lines, and its mouth is like a cracked dangerous wall, extending all the way to the pinnae, from which sharp teeth can be vaguely glimpsed. "Then make an appointment, little girl." It changed its amiable appearance before, and its voice became rough and scary, "You have three chances to guess my name every day, if you haven't guessed it right by the last day of this month, you My soul will belong to me." Immediately afterwards, it let out a terrifying laugh and turned into a black mist, dissipating into the vast sea in the blink of an eye.

"Why guess the name?" Hana interrupted, the little girl twisted restlessly in Morrison's arms, "You can also guess what you like to eat."

But that's what it says in the book.

Thinking that this answer was so common that Morrison himself felt a little bored, the mermaid cleared his throat seriously and decided to make some nonsense: "Because many people believe that names are a part of life and also a reflection of the soul." He paused Dun, pretending to be mysterious and lowering his voice, "If the gods know your name, then once you do something bad, he will punish you—"

Hana's face fell instantly, and her small hands were firmly pinching Morrison's forearm. She turned her head and peeked at the older mermaid, as if she was lucky: "Maybe the gods don't know my name."

"Gods are everywhere. Today he may be a stone, but tomorrow he will become a giant whale or something else. However, as long as you are a good and obedient child, there will be no punishment." Mori Sen suppressed a smile and said the usual deception tricks used by parents.

"Woo." The little mermaid shrank back, obviously not wanting to continue discussing the topic of gods, "Daddy, keep reading."

A young mermaid frets over the ever-drawing date of his appointment.Being able to make twenty violins a day was not just a lie of her father for the sake of face, but she did not expect to be taken seriously by the lord.The lord ordered someone to bring the mermaid into the closed room and provide materials for her to make the violin with peace of mind. If not, her father and she would both be arrested for cheating.So every day when the sun returns to the cradle of the sea, the servant will come to the room and take away the fruits of work; and when the sun stretches out and steps out of the mattress made of water, the moray will appear with a violin and ask the girl to guess its name.

"Jack?"

"Wrong." It turned around in a circle.

"Wilhelm?"

"Clearly wrong." It hissed.

"Is that Rutledge?"

It showed a surprised expression. From ancient times to the present, no one has ever been able to guess its name.The little mermaid clenched her fists tightly, her body trembling slightly because of excitement, she couldn't believe that she found the right key by mistake.But the surprise lasted only for a short moment, and the next moment, the words spit out by Moray made her fall into the abyss again: "I was fooled, my lovely girl." Then she blinked viciously, and disappeared in the In the sight of the mermaid.

……

On the day before the appointed day, the lord brought a lot of exquisite food to visit the mermaid girl. "It seems that I was too suspicious. You really made twenty violins every day." The lord said, "I think you can fulfill the agreement well on the last day. Come on, don't be restrained, it's time to treat you well. "The lord asked the servant to arrange the food and greeted her warmly.The girl was a little shy at first, but after a few sips of wine, both of them relaxed.

"I was patrolling with the guards a few days ago, and when I passed a cave, I saw a weird moray eel. He was entrenched in the cave, singing while grinding shells..."

Probably it is more popular to tell a romantic story about a princess and a prince.

Although the plot is entering the most critical place, Hana has already fallen asleep crookedly in Morrison's arms.Although the elder mermaid felt helpless, he also breathed a sigh of relief. He carried the little girl who had slept in a puddle back to the bed.

A small piece of moonlight fell into the sea along the gap between the coral branches above the head, refracted light blue spots on the mermaid's scales, and kept dancing in the corner of the mermaid's eyes. Morrison suddenly wanted to see the humans in the cave ——This idea formed a dense fog in his mind, and before the wind of reason could blow it away, the mermaid was already walking towards the destination through the seagrass grass plains and jagged rocks.

The water leading to the inside of the cave is glowing orange, and the fish fry that usually swim in the crevices of the rocks are gone. The strange and abnormal situation makes Morrison frown, and his heart is pounding on his ribs Straight ring.He subconsciously closed his gills, slowed down the outflow of air bubbles and water, and silently raised his gaze above the water surface.

The first thing that catches the mermaid's eyelids is a burning flame.

The temperature was covering him in a visible way, Morrison's eyes began to sting, the water droplets flowing on the tips of his hair were shrinking, his skin was shrinking at an imperceptible speed, and the scorching breath hit his body, as if conveying The glory of the sun at noon.The mermaid retracted her body, letting the ocean's familiar big hand caress her, the softness and coldness brought him the warmth from the land.

Morrison didn't have a good impression of the flames.

The seemingly harmless orange-red sprites seem to always bring war and sacrifice.The mermaid didn't understand why the fire appeared in the cave. Did the rescued humans have been discovered by the guys who hunted him down?

There was no way to explain the anxiety welling up in his chest, which was as weird and secretive as Morrison would climb the towering rocks every typhoon day.Now this emotion drives him to make an action that is not considered rational by onlookers-the mermaid rises out of the water again, and the strong light makes him squint his eyes: all the sharp lines in the cave, and the silhouettes in the shadows It began to become clear and three-dimensional——the water vapor content in the air is much lower than that on the sea surface, not only that, but there is also a certain fragrance that he doesn't understand in the water vapor, like annoying parasites, burrowing into the slit on the mermaid's neck desperately , made him hungry; under the burning fire was the nest once abandoned by seabirds, and shells and gravel drew a circle around it, embracing the fire; flames separated humans from the sea, Morrison will With his arms resting on the edge of the land away from the scorching heat, wrapped in a hard shell-like white military uniform, the wounded man curled up into a ball and leaned against the edge of the rock.In the warm air, human beings, like the broken feathers under the wings of seagulls facing the morning sun, are fully visible.He folded his hands on his chest and lowered his chin so low that the mermaid could only glimpse the fine eyelashes and the straight bridge of the nose under the other's closed eyes.

The next moment the human being woke up from the state of doze, he moved, the vigilance in the dark brown eyes was undisguised, the irises were pierced naked, and when he saw that the intruder at the entrance was a mermaid, he left no trace He carefully concealed the fierceness that emanated. "It's you." The human staggered up slightly in surprise, and walked towards the mermaid.After leaving a certain safe distance, he stopped.

The foreign language passed through the ear fins of the mermaid. Although the process was strange, Morrison still understood it.

I don't know if it can be converted into human speech if I speak directly.

"Show me your injuries."

The effect is evident from the somewhat comical opening of the human mouth.

"That's interesting." The human muttered and knelt on the ground.When communication is no longer a barrier between the two races, human beings become bolder.He completely forgot the space he had left before, and put his body as close to Morrison as possible, his lips moved close to him, and the faint aroma of food was revealed at the end of his words. "So you can speak human language?"

Morrison nodded.

It is very troublesome to explain the existence of magic to the other party, and he is not an expert in this field. "The wound..." Morrison repeated, but was ignored by the man.The brown-skinned man stretched out his hand towards the mermaid: "You can wait for this first. You have to tell me your name first."

sudden desire.

Morrison stared at his face, trying to read something out of it, but of course found nothing.He lowered his head and chewed on the deep meaning of the other person's words, only then did he realize that the alien intonation he had repeated when we first met last night was most likely a human name.

"Reyes," the mermaid chose the shorter pronunciation, and when he saw the man's delighted expression, he knew he had guessed right, "I'm Jack Morrison. If we can, let's save some nonsense nonsense." Then the mermaid pointed to the man's waist and abdomen.

Reyes made fun of it.He withdrew his hand that was awkwardly hanging in the air, and sat lazily on the ground.

The mermaid floated up and down in the narrow entrance, and he was more used to being soaked——Reyes watched the water flow from Morrison's forehead to the tip of the white eyelashes for the third time, and his eyes, which were already familiar with the sea, remained indifferent. Let the water droplets form a dense curtain in front of your eyes.

"You are impatient, aren't you?" He teased, and obediently unbuttoned the golden buttons on his coat, and pulled the edge of the vest with his fingers, showing the wound to the mermaid.

Reyes' body still had many staggered, hardened and scabbed wounds, and the new members at this moment seemed particularly abrupt and conspicuous among them.In the firelight, the shallow brown scabs turned into thin scales covering the human limbs. The skin around the wound wrinkled due to contraction. The scar was still fresh, and if it was poked lightly, the uncoagulated red blood underneath would ooze out.But overall, the recovery situation is better than the mermaid thought.

※※※

After carefully confirming that the human life was safe, Morrison turned his attention from the wound to the flame: "How did you do it?"

Reyes moved his body, and before he knew it, the distance between him and Morrison had been reduced to within two palms.Two people of different races faced each other, both on the right side of the fire; the branches of birds' nests crackled in the flames, and the smell of burning slowly crept into the nostrils.Morrison sniffed the hot air. In the past, he always deliberately stayed away from the flames, the torches held high by fishermen during night patrols, the ghostly phosphorescent fire on a pirate ship, or the hot magma suddenly emerging from the seabed.But now, the fragrance from the land lingered on him.

"It's not difficult. You need two suitable stones..."

Reyes' demonstration didn't excite the merfolk.Morrison's fingers clasped the edge of the land, and the water flowing down from his knuckles printed small round spots on the rocky ground. An orange flower was blooming in the blue pupils, and the petals were divided into a thousand in the winding flow; The tongue of fire kept licking towards the mermaid's protruding fingertips.

Reyes watched Morrison's every move from the corner of his eye, and felt that his brain was suddenly stabbed by the opponent's move. It was a projection that was as weird as a kaleidoscope spinning. In the upside-down chaos, he dropped stones, tightly Grabbing the mermaid's wrist, the thumb and ring finger formed a complete circle on Morrison's wrist.

The caught mermaid was startled, and instinctively wanted to withdraw her hand into the sea, but because of too much force, she almost brought the man down with her.Splashes of water wet Reyes' hair, and some fell into the fire, letting out a final hissing moan of misery.

Reyes' pupils constricted, and he propped himself up on his elbows in embarrassment, snarling at Morrison, "You shouldn't be touching this!"

The mermaid showed her fangs reflexively, and yelled back at Reyes: "Let go of your hand! I know how to measure."

Reyes was taken aback, then let go of Morrison's wrist.He retreated to the rock wall with a wry smile, exhaustion leaked from every open pore, and poured out in the shadows where the light couldn't penetrate, "...you don't need to be so defensive. A wounded and unarmed human How much threat can it pose to you?" His voice was interrupted for a moment.Then the human continued to add: "I just don't want to see... the savior being scalded into a grilled fish."

"Sorry." The human murmured in a low voice, like whispers in broken waves.

"..." Reyes' strength was much stronger than the mermaid expected.Morrison looked at the light red mark on his wrist, where Reyes left a warm clasp.What a weird guy.

"Reyes." Morrison said his name again, "tell me what trouble you're in."

A classic revenge story.

Pirates and military officers stand at opposite ends of good and evil, and the conflict and hatred between the two forces reached its peak after the naval battle a month ago.After clearing the pirates, the general returned to the city with his exhausted subordinates and was ambushed by the remnants of the pirates. Amid the funeral songs of gunshots and explosions, his colleagues slept forever on the bright red land.In order to create a chance for the remaining survivors to escape, the general made a desperate move towards the edge of the cliff alone.The general suffered a serious gunshot wound in the waist, and what made him even more desperate was that the two close-fitting shotguns had already been emptied.Holding his wound that was still bleeding, he was forced to the corner of the cliff by the pirates.Every time the man took a step back, he could hear the sound of rolling stones in his ears.The pirates became blood-crazed sharks, and they clung to him.

When the brown eyes met the countless black gun muzzles, the general turned over and jumped into the boundless deep sea without hesitation.

"Then you savagely grabbed my waist and dragged me into the sea."

"Brutal?" The mermaid obviously couldn't accept such an evaluation. His eyebrows were raised high, almost slanted into his forehead, "Please. You beat me hard all the way."

Reyes laughed loudly, his voice echoing against the rock wall. "This is too exaggerated. No matter who is caught in the sea suddenly, he will resist."

Morrison saw the trembling beard of the man laughing through the gap of the shadows, and suddenly found that the guard in his heart had disappeared, disappeared in the steady and quiet flame, disappeared in the overly warm air of the cave, disappeared in the story of human beings and In his pretty smile.

TBC