Black Pearls - Lily

Shella watched in utter fascination, kneeling closer on the bed to the decorations. The mushy heads were turned into gentle faces with delicate features and long, wave-like hair that swept away into water seamlessly. Fish tails were given scales, each a fine mark into the wood with such skill that only the supernatural could define it. Finally, each small woman was filled out with the features of their sex. Breasts were turned from an undivided lump into two gracious swells, with tiny bumps for nipples. Where human met fish on the mermaids, a tiny slit appeared.

"Holy shit," Shella said breathlessly. It was clearly two mermaids in love with each other, the wood of their forms so smooth it was somewhat shiny. She'd have to be blind to think otherwise. Around her, the ship creaked out what felt like an audible smile, and Shella glanced around.

It seemed there was a lot more decoration going on in the ship. There were curved lintels with fern-like waves decorating them and rectangular coffers where there had been none. Behind her, the glass of the window crackled, and Shella twisted around in surprise. The windows, normally discolored, were changing back into the same color one by one. Fractures engulfed one yellowed glass, then retreated to display a clean, clear glass.

Shella got out of the bed and wandered in a daze. The ship, Lily, was reshaping herself. Lily had complete control over her body beyond walking through her own walls, but now she was exercising that power to beautify herself! But why? Shella was perfectly happy with how she had looked. Shella backed against the wall, bewildered and actually frightened of the being that surrounded her, many times larger than she was. "C'mon, Lily, what're you doing?" Shella murmured.

Arms gently enclosed her in a hug, sinking from out of the wall. Shella stiffened in their grasp, and turned her head as she felt something lean on her shoulder. It was Lily, who still held that sad look! Shella wriggled in Lily's grip. She was trapped. "Uh, Lily? This ain't much of an explanation," she said.

She caught the briefest of smiles from Lily before Lily pulled back into the wall. Shella stumbled away from the wall, and placed her hand against it. Smooth and solid. If she didn't know about Lily's powers, she'd have jumped off the ship in fright right about now.

Frustrated, Shella wandered on to the deck. The railings were more secure now, attached to the floor with flowing pillars of wood carved like waves. She looked up at the masts, and was greeted with creme-colored sails that were square, clean, and as good as new. A far cry from the ruined state they had been in. Furthermore, the now-smooth deck seemed more vibrant. There was still plenty of ghostly-grey wood, but it seemed active, alive, and fit!

Fit was a weird way to describe the ship's state, Shella knew. But it also reminded her of how Lily seemed to be dressing up. She was getting into shape, as opposed to just letting what damage be. It felt like Lily was getting ready to go home!

Shella cracked a grin upon realizing this. "Hey, Lily! You dressin' up fer goin' home?" she called out.

She was answered with silence. Even the remolding of details seemed to stop once Shella asked her question. "Lily?" Shella asked.

Nothing. Nothing but dead quiet.

* * *

The day turned into night, and Shella was still alone. The odd loneliness began to crawl on her, twitching like a bug on the back of her neck. The ship felt more alive than ever, but it wasn't like how Lily was alive. It was alive with deep shadows, hidden movement, and the odd beauty of the silver moon-light cascading across it. It felt haunted.

Shella rubbed her shoulders as she was sitting naked in bed. The large room was eerie. Shella desperately wanted to have someone in the bed next to her. She wanted Lily to be next to her, doing whatever it was that Lily did with that body of hers when Shella was asleep. It could be sleeping, it could be reading, it could be masturbating. Shella needed company.

It was a bit funny, Shella's problem. The time she had spent in this world had lent her knowledge about the pearl curse, and the key to escaping it. That, in turn, actually prompted her to sleep with more and more beings. She just used them to get the black pearls. Unity, Plancti, Yrkala, Ochia, Argentia; their company had been used to give Shella another black pearl, another step out of here. Now that she was so close to leaving, there was nobody around her. Nobody save for the woman who had carried her everywhere.

Her only resort was to find Lily. Shella flung the bed's covers off of herself and put her clothes on. She padded out of the cabin, swinging open the double doors onto a moonlight-painted deck. Bare and empty, the shadows of the railings and cracks in the planks made even darker by the silvery light of the night.

Shella turned around. Next to the double doors was set of ladder-like stairs that led up, and she ascended them. She walked to the back railing and looked outwards. The moonlight played and danced off of the ship's wake; they were still moving, and always had been moving. The wind pushed them along unceasingly.

The moon tonight was completely full, its silver circle hanging low in the sky. Last night, it had been full. The night before that, also full, and the night before that, and the night before that. Shella had found that this world had a great predication towards full moons.

Shella turned around to face the ship, leaning against the railing with her arms crossed. The ship was only so big, but it was impossible for her to talk to Lily face-to-face! Lily would just walk through the walls, always ducking Shella's attention. Though, she was the ship. As awkward as it would be, Shella could always just start talking.

She slid to a corner of the railing and looked up. One side was blocked by the ship's sails, but Shella could still see the stars of the night sky. They danced all through the night, quite literally. Shella had made an effort once to track the night sky, only to find that the stars moved and changed positions.

Licking her lips in worry, Shella said, "Hey, Lily, d'ya remember home?"

No answer. Not that she should've expected one.

"D'ya know where 'm from?" Shella continued, "Was this island, part o' a grand ol' empire. From a village on it, act'chally. Had a church n' houses, n' the big plantation tha' just kinda took over the entire damned place. Hadda leave when I was 17 or 18, somewhere along tha' age. 'S been so long. Got caught kissin' this girl named Lucy. Preacher's daughter."

Shella slid down to sit on the floor. "Wonder what happened to her."

A gentle hand fell down to cover hers, and Shella looked over. Lily was sitting next to her, looking up at the stars.

"Wha' was it like fer you? Th' real world, tha' is," Shella asked.

Lily's head bobbed down, long hair covering her eyes, before it jerked back up. A hand swept forward and gestured to the entire ship as a whole.

Shella followed her gesture, then smiled weakly. "Yeah, guess it's that. Ye've always been a ship. Dunno who fer, an' I dunno what ye did, an' I dunno ifn' ye'll ever tell. I can imagine, but tha's just imaginin'."

A moment of silence, then Shella said, "Why me? Why pick me? I know tha' I jest ended up down in the depths wi' you, but ye di'nt need to take me up. If'n ye di'nt decide ta pick me up an' set sail wi' me, ye wouldn't be here."

Lily shook her head at that, pale strands of hair jumping around. Now what did that mean?

Shella shouldn't dwell on it, lest she go crazy from Lily's silence. Another topic then, however one-sided it may be. "Ye know tha' wizard said it'd be 10 Black Pearls t' escape from here. I've told ye tha', an' we're one pearl away from all the components. Wha' d'ya want t' do once we get back t' our world? D'ya wanna raid ships? Pluck th' gold n' rum from fat merchants?"

Lily shook her head. A definitive no.

"Wha' then, d'ya wanna carry tha' stuff? Haul 'round other people's stuff? Goin' from port to port n' servicin' other people's stuff?"

Lily shook her head. No again.

"Well, then. Wha' else, go lookin' fer treasure? Grab the pretty jewels an' shiny gold an' stick it somewhere? Take th' world's magic in our hands?

Lily smile with closed lips and nodded. A yes, though Shella wasn't sure if Lily was sure.

"Really, that? I di'nt take ye fer a greedy sort, Lily," Shella said as she stood up and twirled to face Lily, "In tha' case, 'm gonna getcha the best things I can find. Crowns of kings, the necklaces of queens, magic talismans n' tridents o' solid gold, all jest fer you. Ye'll be the shiniest ship on the seas!"

Lily smiled at that, a nice, giggling smile that was silent, but mirthful. Shella extended a hand to her, and she took it and let Shella pull her to her feet.

Shella let out a sigh and said, "But we still need tha' one last pearl."

Lily immediately frowned and walked past Shella.

"Oh, come on, it's one pearl!" Shella said, turning around. Lily was gone. Of course.

She'd never catch up to that woman. Shella could shower her with all the gifts of the world, do everything in her power to display her affections, but Shella would still be behind Lily.

The only thing Shella could do now was tease Lily. As she headed back to her cabin, she unbuttoned her shirt. Her round, smooth breasts, free from their restraint, were dyed silver by the moon.

As she closed the cabin's door behind her, she slung the shirt off into a corner. Shella peeled her pants off before she slid back into bed, kicking them off towards a wall and leaving the delicious curve of her ass as well as her hairless snatch bare for any voyeurs. As she laid back on the bed, she avoided pulling up the sheets, just to taunt Lily with her nude body.

* * *

Shella woke up with the sheets pulled around her, as if someone was afraid she'd get cold. She frowned tightly in disappointment. Was Lily even interested? Then she looked to the bed's posters to see what had changed.

The continued designs on the pillars was positively pornographic. The columns were covered in paired women of a dizzying variety of kinds. Mermaids licked the slits of humans, octopus-tentacled women played with the tits and between the legs of elves, and shark women were pressing fingers into the sex of tailed women while nuzzling them. Every single face was carved into beautiful images of love, with either care for each other or sexual ecstasy written across every single person. There was no subtext; the bed's four posters were meant to arouse.

That got Shella to grin. Either Lily was servicing Shella, highly unlikely given how insistent Shella was being about the tenth pearl, or Lily was decorating for herself. Shella got out of the bed and walked around the pillars, rubbing her thumb along wooden breasts and stomachs. They were perfectly smooth, without a hint of roughness or cracks. There were a few spots still unfinished, but already sawdust was falling away from them to form new shapes. Damn, Shella was going to enjoy this bed.

She tore herself away from the erotic piece of art, her sex slightly moist, and found her clothes neatly folded nearby. Shella quickly dragged on the pants and shirt, and tied on the bandanna and torn pirate flag, before walking out onto the deck.

The deck was still grey and bare. Barely any of the artistry that had been applied to the bed had reached the rest of the ship yet, it looked like. Save for the railings. Those had probably been pretty easy for Lily, Shella thought.

Shella wandered to the bow of the ship in idle boredom. She could see waves break against the prow of the ship as it carried on meaninglessly. The spar stuck out proudly. Now that Shella thought about it, didn't it look kinda... She was reading too much into it, she decided.

The figurehead caught Shella's eye. Or rather, figureheads. She went from one side of the prow to the other, and saw that yes, there were in fact two statues of women on the front of the Sea Lilith. They were still roughly cut, but their arms were entwined with each other, and they appeared to gaze into each other's eyes. Lily was really being on-the-nose here, weren't she?

Well, Shella may as well try. She turned around to face the rest of the ship and called out, "Hey, Lily? Lily?"

Shella placed her hands on her hips and waited. No ripples of water, no ghostly apparitions. Nothing. Again.

A hand on her shoulder made Shella jump. She whirled around, mind flooded with panic and irritation, and faced Lily. Lily was standing in the spar; her feet were still stuck in the wood, and her dress was stuck being pulled out most of the way from the railing. "What th' hell was that for?" Shella exclaimed.

Lily hid a smile behind a hand, then walked through the railing and leaned on it. Her face looked like she was expecting Shella to bring something up.

Shella brushed a wavy strand of hair away from her face, then said, "Nice job on th' ship. I mean, it is your body and ye can do wi' it how ye please, but it looks good."

She chewed her lip, trying to decide how to phrase the next part. Lily looked at her expectantly, like she knew what the next part would be.

"Lily..." Shella began. "Look, I don't know what ye want, 'cause ye can't talk. I know I want us ta get th' tenth pearl an' get outta here. You've told me that yer the tenth pearl, but ye're just runnin' off and leavin' me cold. What's goin' on, Lily? We can go home together, have adventures together, be real 'n alive! What's the problem?"

Lily just shook her head and began to walk off, brushing past Shella. Shella twisted around and caught her hand, before going behind Lily and hugging her. Lily was ever-so-slightly cold.

Whispering in Lily's ear, Shella said, "C'mon, think about it. Me n' you, together. All we have t' do is acknowledge it. I've seen what you can do. You've seen me. There's gotta be some things you want to do me, ain't there? Some kind of pleasure ye've just be denying yerself, over and over. Don' hide it anymore, Lily. Feel free to release yer desires on me. I want them."

Lily struggled out of Shella's grasp and strode out a few steps. Despair rose in Shella's heart before Lily stopped, turned around, and ran back to Shella. She caught Shella in a surprise kiss, a brief encounter not nearly as awkward as the poorly-planned kiss before. Just as suddenly, Lily broke the kiss with a knowing smile and descended through the ship's floorboards, leaving Shella nonplussed on the deck.

After a minute of shocked silence, Shella exclaimed, "What th' hell did that mean?!"

* * *

Shella could not even begin to decipher what Lily was doing. Everything she was doing, she did without explanation! Hell, Shella was beginning to think that Lily didn't want to go home! But she just wouldn't speak!

Eventually, Shella's vexations carried her down to the pool. The air hung thick around her with water. Lily's homoerotic decorations barely had a presence here, their only trace the women on the door to the pearl room.

Exasperated, Shella unbuttoned the lone button on her shirt. Her breasts, formerly pressing against the brassiere-like shirt, bounced free, smooth bronze globes weighed by gravity. Her nipples were darker patches on them with small, unaroused bumps.

She hung her shirt on a branch of coral, then untied the flag around her waist. That drifted to the floor, ignored and lonely. Then Shella removed the bandanna from around her head and ruffled a hand through her hair. Green sea-weed like tangles of hair fell down, nearly covering her eyes. The bandanna fell onto the same hook of coral as the shirt.

Fingers hooked into the hem of her pants and tugged downwards. They were pulled off of the smooth, luscious curve of her ass and fell off of perfectly-sculpted legs, their skin supernaturally smooth. Shella's hair-free sex was free to the wet air as she bent down to fetch the pants, and then hung them on another outcropping of coral.

Shella walked up the layers of large flat rocks that circled the pool, and sat down next to the edge. The stone was cool and smooth on her ass, and she dipped a finger into the water. Warm, clear, inviting. Blue coral glowed within gaps in the stonework. Within the walls, a filtration system constantly replaced the water, keeping the pool fresh and clean. In fact, the water of the pool was a thousand times more preferable to the cold waters of the ocean, and far more private.

She slid into the pool without hesitation, the warm water sliding around her like a coat. As Shella sunk in past her ribs, the gill slits opened up there, and Shella could feel the water drawn in and out with each breathe, almost tickling her. Likewise, when she was in the pool past her neck, her gills there opened up and began pumping. Her hair drifted up like actual seaweed as she was fully enveloped by the liquid environment.

Drifting down, Shella sat on the rocky bottom. She could feel how she drew life from the water like breathing air, how natural her existence was. This meandering of thought raised up a question to Shella; What the hell was Lily's life like? What did she feel? Could she actually feel her sails billow in the wind? What about footsteps or cuts into wood made by axes? Damn, now Shella was curious.

Shella rested for a while, occasionally stretching. She caught a flash of movement above her. Her curiosity piqued, Shella lunged upwards to the surface. She broke the water with a splash, caught the pool's edge and drew herself closer to it.

Standing in front of the pool with a nervous smile was Lily. She kept on look at, then jerking away from, the pool, one hand drawn close to her chest and the other behind her.

"Well," Shella said, "ye got anythin'?"

Lily smiled and pulled at the hem of her loose dress, yanking it over her slim shoulder. She pushed the dress off her other shoulder, and it fell to the ground, exposing her.

Though Lily was wearing nothing underneath, she still had some manner of modesty. Lily was twisting a thigh and moved her hand in front of her sex to cover it, and her hand that had undressed her was covering her chest in a loose fashion. Her face was blushing a pink-purple color, and she was avoiding Shella's gaze.

Shella motioned Lily to come closer with a hand, saying, "C'mon, it's nothin' to be embarrassed about."

Lily stepped out of her clothing and sat down on the edge of the pool. Below her petite breasts, her ribs were wooden. Or something like it, at least. The skin at her ribcage there looked like wooden ship's ribs, and her arm didn't conceal her wooden sternum, either.

Her feet were on the edge of the pool, still covered by their long, fine-leather boots. Bit disappointing, Shella thought. Lily wore them everywhere, and Shella had no idea why.

Shella scooted over to Lily and took one foot in her hand, pulling it out over the pool. She looked expectantly at Lily, waiting for a yay or a nay. Lily shook her head, and Shella, puzzled, felt up Lily's foot underneath the boot. The toes were blocky, hard, and rough, the heel rugged and unfinished, and it transitioned to soft human skin as Shella's hand traveled up the shin.

Feeling the unfinished quality of Lily's foot, it dawned on Shella that Lily's feet were still made of wood. She never got feet down right in all her years of self-shaping. That, and she probably liked the boots.

"Not going to come in?" Shella asked.

Lilly nodded, acknowledging that she probably would only float.

"Want me to come out?"

Lily nodded again, letting her hand slip teasingly. Her nipples were a pale pink and semi-hard, aroused by her audacious actions.

"Alright," Shella said, and pulled herself out of the water. Water cascaded off her smooth globes, and droplets highlighted the curves of her body. She stood tall and proud, her nude form over Lily's. Lily gazed at her with utmost admiration, or possibly lust.