Breaking the Rules Pt. 04

She went back in and got some kind of strong alcohol, and some water. They drank the water first. Furaha sighed.

"So... what brings you out to this fetid cesspool at the world's edge? Not that I'm not happy to see you. I know I don't look it, but I'm just exhausted."

"The only thing worth having out here," Nuru said.

"Peace and quiet?"

"You."

She stared at him for a minute. She looked like she was starting to panic.

"And... I mean, I thought maybe you could do some digging for me. I have... questions that need answering," he said.

She swallowed and turned away.

"Ah. Like what?"

"You know what? That can wait. Why did *you* come out here?"

"They moved me. Changed my assignment, just like that. I'm certain they think it's a punishment. They're not wrong."

"It does have a lovely view."

"Well... yeah. But it's a dead end for my career. My job... my real job, it needs people. Lots of people. Here, there's nothing. No glory, no friends; nobody stays here long. And I'm never getting out of here, because I'm never going to have an opportunity to distinguish myself. My life's basically over, unless I quit and do something else."

"For helping me?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not, really. I know, this place is rotten, but I was going nowhere fast at Home Town either. Nothing to do but look for lost kittens and make somebody else look good. At least I got to say I did something with my life. I sacrificed by leaving, but it meant something."

"That's a good way to look at it."

"So don't you dare go thinking you can throw it away on a whim. You better not decide you're going to make some romantic gesture, like offer to stay out here and live with me. It wouldn't end well."

"No... I'm not."

"So, then, what?"

Nuru explained about Fumnaya's household, leaving out the most graphic details. Furaha popped the alcohol bottle, discarded her clothes again, and slipped out into the water.

"H-huh. And you think there's more people like that hidden away throughout the world?"

"That's right."

"And they have clues for your succubus to use for... something."

"How'd you guess?"

"I started hearing rumors, back when I was still in the thick of civilized places. Some, outlandish. Some, unbelievable, but with a ring of truth to them. It started me thinking, after we met, and even more after your escape. Why you? Why's she sticking with you when you've got a giant target on your back, after slipping the Faction net? Why not settle down with someone like your friend with the eight husbands? Whatever it is, it's got to be big."

"So, you can't help me from here?"

"Oh, I don't know about that. It'll be harder, but I've still got some connec- AIIIGH!" Furaha shrieked. Something slipped up behind her out of the water and put something over her mouth.

"Mmmph! Mmm... mm. Mmhmm," Furaha said, sagging as no further attack came and the tension drained from her again.

It slipped back down into the water in the darkness, head poked out of the water, watching carefully.

"Is... was... was that you back there?"

Click.

"Oh my heavens. I'm so sorry about what happened. Are you- are you OK?"

Click click.

"Is... that a no? I'm sorry, I don't speak your language."

"Skree... kak..."

"Ssh. It's OK. You don't need to say anything. I know you've been through a lot. Will you stay here tonight?"

Click.

"OK. I don't suppose you need a blanket or anything. I... I'll bring mine out here and sleep on the sand. You can wake me if you need me."

Click.

"Oh Nuru... I'm so tired. You can take the bed tonight. I'm sleeping out here."

"Is that safe? Are there crabs or anything?"

"I'll be fine... I think. We'll talk tomorrow."

"OK. Goodnight then."

Nuru heard her softly speaking well into the night, but couldn't make out any of the words.

*****

Nuru woke up with something over his head.

"Murmmmmph!" he tried to get up, but strong arms held him down. Fists began to assault him, and he got his head uncovered for only a brief second. "Hey what th-mmmgmmmrrrmpph!"

At least two people grunted with the exertion of their attack. Nuru slipped loose and squeezed himself between the bed and the back wall.

"Get back here you little sh-" one man growled.

"It's not her."

"I don't give a damn. He knows where she is, I'd wager."

"Hey!" a shrill voice called from outside. "Get out of my house!"

"And there she is," the second man said.

"Is this little pipsqueak yours?" the first man called out. "Come in here and get him, before I start snapping my fingers. And by mine, I mean his."

"I told you-!Allura Hadari!"

"Fuck y-aaaaaauuuurrrrrrggghharghrargh!" the first man fell to the floor, screaming.

"Bitch, what the fuck did you do to him?"

"Same thing I'm gonna do to you, and every one of your pals here if you don't get the hell out of my house. Now."

"If you could have done that earlier, why didn't you?"

"Because I chose to engage you, back there, where it wasn't my business. Now you're intruding on my house, and there is so much more where that came from, so take all your four-foot bald-headed sacks of pain receptors out of my sight before I actually get angry."

Several sets of footsteps began to recede. The one man lay on the floor and continued to groan.

"Get up. Come on, get up, let's get out of here," Furaha hissed.

Cough, cough. "Ow." Nuru said. Cough. "Ow."

"We've got five minutes," she muttered. "Hurry."

He grabbed his pack from the bedside, slung his drum under his arm, and shuffled out after her, stepping carefully past the dwarf rolling on the floor, covering his face with his pincushioned arm.

"I should... I should rinse off," Nuru said, hobbling over to the water. "I'm hurrying, I'm hurr-"

He tripped and fell at the water's edge, spilling some of his purse out accidentally.

"Aw, shit." He scrambled to collect it, but some of it sunk into the wet sand and slid down into the pool. "Gods damn it."

It was too dark to see where they'd gone. A sudden commotion came from the side of the pool.

"Er... uh..." he said, dimly remembering there had been a mermaid sleeping somewhere nearby.

A small hand held out a stack of coins. He reached out and shakily took them.

"Th-thank you," he said, putting them back in.

Click. Click click click chitter click click SKEEE.

The mermaid swirled in the water and vanished into the pre-dawn morning.

"Ugh. Morning people," Nuru muttered, getting back to his feet.

Furaha snorted. "You can't be that beat up," she said.

"My funny bone is the strongest one in my body," Nuru cracked, then stumbled and let Furaha catch him.

"Alright tough guy. I'm gonna get you a health potion as soon as the stall opens. I owe you that much."

"What did you mean, five minutes?"

"If you must know, I picked Needle Storm scrolls as a deterrent against certain unruly family members. It worked well enough that I later decided to get it as a permanent spell. Never leave home without it. Hell of a cooldown though, and the projectiles vaporise in five minutes."

"So all that you were saying about more where that came from...?"

"Kind of a bluff. I mean, if they sit around waiting ten minutes, I'll get another one, but..."

"Oh. They really bought it."

"Yeah, well, I got their leader, or at least the one holding the biggest grudge. He's gonna be coming back; we need to be in line of sight of the city guard when that happens. He's more than a match for both of us, I'm afraid, especially if he's got any kind of a shield next time."

"I can see why you love this place."

"How's your face?"

"Had a pillow over it. No bruises, I think."

"Then I don't have to worry about doing this-" Furaha said, pausing to turn and kiss him hard on the lips.

"Ooh... I'm healed," Nuru murmered.

"Is that so?" Furaha said. "Race you to the square."

"Mm. Still early. I'll pass."

She giggled, taking his hand to steady him as they walked. "It's really good to see you."

"I missed you too."

"Did you!?"

"Well, yeah. Why does that surprise you?"

"I... I just... Everyone seems to be in such a hurry to leave. All my friends from Home Town took off and left me there, nobody ever came to visit. Not that I had many, you know, being a half-breed, but..."

"Can't compete with the big world full of quests out there," Nuru sighed. "At least you had friends."

"It's not fair. The gods are out there, passing out all the quests to their factions, and everyone's ignoring what we've got right in front of us."

"Not everyone."

"Everyone but you. Why are you special, Nuru? What makes you different, in that way?"

"Good question. I wonder... what people would be like if they didn't have a faction to tell them what to believe, what should be important to them. I still can't tell you why I chose not to walk that path. Damn fool stubbornness, perhaps?"

"We may never know. But you can count me as a friend."

"I thought you didn't do friends anymore. I thought you did tease victims."

"I'm a great multi-tasker, I can do both. At the same time, even."

"Ah."

"Here we are... easy now, let's get comfortable. A few hours remain until this place opens up."

"What are you going to do about these guys? Are you not going to live in the hut anymore?"

"They're sailors, with a strict schedule to keep, and none of them was captain material enough to grant any exception. They'll hold a grudge when they leave today, but... what else is new, in my line of work. I'll put some wards up, it'll be fine. Didn't think I'd need any, out here in the ass end of nowhere, but apparently I was wrong. Not that I had time to put any down yet."

"Ah. Dwarven sailors, how bizarre... next I'll be seeing elves underground. So, you got a plan for what to do with your job?"

She sighed. "Not yet. I'm finding my expectations ill-matched to my results. Maybe... I know this is going to sound weird, knowing what you do about me, but - maybe I've been spoiled a little bit. Maybe I just need to tighten my belt and figure it out, like hardworking folk everywhere do; like the farmers and simple laborers, who don't get all the loot rewards from a big score. Life's a challenge, but, sometimes you've just got to struggle until an opportunity presents itself."

"I know what you mean," Nuru said.

"Yeah, I guess you do. Sorry, I'm not trying to diminish your experience."

"Nothing to apologize for."

"But if you hadn't-"

"Ssh, I mean it. I'd do it again. I couldn't bear to see you all torn up about what was happening. If you want to thank me just smile so I know it was all worth it."

She sniffled wetly.

"Hey now, that's not what I said. Crying's forbidden, you hear me?"

"Shut up. I'll cry if I want to. You're the most heart-wrenching, amazing man I've ever met. We're not supposed to get close to political assets, or care about them, but I can't help it with you."

"You take that back. I'll have you know I'm actually quite the scoundrel, and I've got the broken hearts to show for it."

"Yeah, I'll bet you do."

"I'll show you my collection some time."

"Uh-huh."

"Kiss me again, I dare you."

She did it, without hesitation.

"Although I admit, usually the beating comes *afterwards*-" he said.

She slapped him playfully across the face.

"Hey! What was that for?!"

"Just helping you keep up your traditions, that's all," she grinned. "Again?"

"Hit me," he said.

She kissed him instead, and kept kissing him until the sun had come up and the stalls had opened.

"Hey you two, get a room. I gotta do business here," one of the stall merchants said.

"Sorry officer, I missed the 'frowns only' sign that got posted. Where is that again?" Nuru scoffed.

"Don't want no vagrants impeding the foot traffic. Got a lot of clients need some fresh greens for the high seas. Keeps the scurvy away, very important."

"Greens? You're just green 'cause you're jealous, but we're going," Furaha said.

Nuru got up painfully slow, with Furaha's help. They went over and bought some health potions, and breakfast.

"I think one's enough," he said, quaffing it immediately.

"And one for the road, if you need it and I'm not there to smooch you healthy again. That's something your, um, person can do, right? At least, I know others like her have had similar abilities related to their natures."

"Uhh... I don't know actually. Sounds like a question I really need to be asking."

"Yeah, you should do that."

"I'll ask her later. She's usually up late."

She nodded. "I think everybody should be boarded, shall we go see what's left of my hovel?"

"Sure."

Nuru stood up straighter as his HP refilled. They walked back more calmly, more steadily. Furaha held his hand, but this time not for support. Aside from the bed in a bit of disarray and a few fading footprints in the pinkish sand, there was no sign that anything had happened. Not at the hut, anyway.

Click. Click click click.

"Hey, our mermaid is back," Nuru said.

"Oh! She's brought something to show us."

They walked over to the pool, peering curiously at a small box by the water's edge. Furaha knelt down and opened it, and gasped. "Nuru, look!"

"Wow. That's a small fortune. Where did you find this?" Nuru asked.

Click click chitter click.

"Shipwreck, I'm guessing," Furaha said.

The mermaid looked up at her, surged forward to stretch out on the beach on her back.

"She understands us," Nuru said, feeling his eyes widen in shock. He finally got a good look at her. "Why, you're such a graceful thing, I can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt you."

Her skin was a medium gray with a large patch of almost-white down her chest and belly, her neck long, lean and muscular, attached several degrees back from where a human's was as if her head was thrown permanently back in ecstacy, but still with enough room to bend forward if need be. She didn't have hair, but rather a mass of thick tentacle-like protrusions that could sit flat against her neck and back or puffed and twitched with expression as she gestured. Her bone structure was feminine but strong, high cheekbones and a long jawline that ran further back to give her a mouth that could open very wide, and arms that could fold in tight to act like flippers and hands that could grasp on to reinforce the shoulder joint as she did so. Her eyes looked very human, except for the thick, clear lenses that were what she had instead of eyelids, and she blinked by sliding an extra set of lenses down out of the ridges where eyebrows were on a human. They caught the sun with an irridescent shimmer, and made her pupils look comically large. Further down, her curves were sleek and smooth, wide and subtle mounds of firm flesh exactly where breasts aught to be, and tiny little buds for nipples. She didn't have hips, just a long tail starting below the ribs with a sleek horizontal flipper and a dorsal fin on her lower back that folded over when she laid down on it.

"You're not a fish at all, are you?" Furaha said, studying the same details.

Click click. The mermaid rolled her head in a side to side motion in the sand. The head-tails sat still.

"You're just a water person, with skin suited to the ocean. Are you well today, miss water person?" Furaha asked.

Click.

She gave a nodding motion, head-tails wriggling excitedly. She rolled and slid back into the water, swimming in a circle and diving down to come back up in a light jump out of the water.

Nuru and Furaha clapped.

Click. Click kak click click click click.

Furaha and Nuru looked at each other, puzzled. The sea creature unfolded an arm and held up a finger, then turned and dove.

"Seems like she's in a good mood," Nuru said.

"I'm happy for her. Maybe this place isn't quite so horrendous after all. I've a feeling I'm going to see her again."

"Sooner than you think. Look, there she comes again."

She skimmed across the surface, splitting the waves and carrying some pink glob.

"What on earth..." Nuru wondered.

"What on the shining sea, you mean," Furaha said.

"Whichever."

The mermaid reached the shore and held it up.

"Oh, neat. Is this a jellyfish?" Furaha said.

The mermaid nodded with her whole body.

Click.

"Look, Nuru, there's a fish inside!"

"Oh, wow. Is it feeding? I think the stingers and tendrils are all wrapped up tight around it inside the bubble."

Click.

"Well, I'm so sorry I haven't already asked this, do you have a name?" Furaha said.

Click. Chitter, click click.

"I'm so, so sorry. I don't think I can pronounce that properly. Do you mind if I call you Ekene, would that be ok?" Furaha asked.

The mermaid chittered and clapped her hands, head-tails waving excitedly.

"Skee! Ekene!"

"I daresay you've made a friend," Nuru said. "I'm Nuru, and this is Furaha."

Furaha grinned. "Well, thank you for showing us this jellyfish, do you want to put it back?"

Click click.

"No? Then what..."

Ekene took the jellyfish back a little ways, and then tossed it at Nuru. It hit the sand in front of him with a wet plop.

Click click. The mermaid made a grasping motion with her hands.

"I'm supposed to... catch it?"

Click.

Nuru picked it up, looked at Furaha for a moment, and then tossed it back in the water. Ekene darted forward, caught it, and threw it to Furaha, who caught it against her chest.

"Do merfolk do this a lot? Play with jellyfish?" Furaha asked.

Click.

"Huh," Nuru said. "It's like a ball. A jellyfish ball."

"They could play a game called jellyball," Furaha giggled, tossing the ball back.

Click. Click click click click chitter.

Ekene swam back a little ways, left the jellyfish at the surface, and dove down. She swam hard and fast, pitching up out of the water, propelling the jellyfish in front of her, then at the apex did a flip and slapped the jellyfish with her tail in an arc at Nuru.

"Holy crap! Is the jellyfish OK?"

Click.

"Well, alright then."

Nuru held the jellyball up in one hand and slapped it with the other, sending it flying over the water close to Ekene. She darted forward and slapped the ball with her hand, sending it over to Furaha.

"Woah!" Furaha said, catching it in both hands. "These things are really tough aren't they?"

Click.

Furaha hefted the jellyfish, tossed it up, and jumped to slap it in a long arc over the water. It wobbled in the air, weight not perfectly centered.

"Skee!" Ekene dove quickly and then surged up out of the water to catch the ball as it flew past.

Kak kak kak. Her jaw worked like she was laughing; she dropped the ball in the water and swam up to flop back on the sand, waving her arms at both of them.

Nuru stared, uncomprehending.

"Come on, come over here," Furaha said, kneeling next to her.

Nuru joined her, and Ekene grasped at both of them, hugging them close.

"Oof, ow! Careful please," Nuru said.

Click click. Ekene's head tendrils swooped forward to cover her eyes, and she quickly let go.

"Oh, you've still got some bruises," Furaha said to Nuru.

"It's OK. They're painful, but mostly cosmetic until I get a healer to look at them."

Ekene let her head-tails part to peek up at him cautiously with one eye.

"Aw. You're cute. I bet you've got all the mer-boys showing off to get your attention," Nuru said.

Her mouth opened in a smile. She reached up and gently touched his face.

"Sweet talker," Furaha said, smirking. "But I bet she has fish to catch and things to do with her day."

Kak.

Her head-tails laid flat, and her eyes were sad.

"Oh. Well it was very nice to see you again. Furaha's new here and doesn't have any friends, so come back and see her sometime, OK?" Nuru said.

Skee! Kak chitter click click click click.

Ekene rolled back into the water, took the jellyfish and swam away, stopping to wave at the edge where the pool met the rest of the ocean.