TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 24

The mermen had thin, tapered manhoods that swelled when inserted into the mermaid. At the same time, the mermaid's sex clamped down around the base of the merman's shaft to help keep him in place as he deposited his seed. Depending upon their emotional attachment to one another, these couplings could last from a few minutes to a few hours. Both parties found this satisfying and pleasurable, but not orgasmic.

A few adventurous mermaids finally gave in to their curiosity and offered themselves to the human men. They were entirely unprepared for the humans' frenetic thrusting followed by an orgasm that looked horrendously painful but left the men happy, relaxed, and satisfied.

Unexpectedly, some of these couplings led to pregnancies.

Merfolk communities believed the spawn from these initial couplings to be deformed. Until then, merpeople followed the typical pattern of near-white, softer fronts, or undersides, and darker backs to hide from predators above. Membranes stretched between clawed fingers to help with swimming, though many merfolk trimmed their claws to avoid accidental scratches. Flat discs on either side of their head acted as ears and behind them sat large fins that directed sound inward. The merfolk's eyes were larger than humans to help them see in the underwater darkness they called home. Wide mouths and small, backward-facing teeth indicated an ambush predator as a potential ancestor.

In the new hatchlings, human ears replaced the disc and fins suited for hearing in the water, yet mysteriously worked just as well. The only remnant of the old ears appeared in small, soft spines along the ear's back edge. The children had a second, crystal-clear membrane that slid sideways over their human-sized eyes and helped them see underwater. The faint red glow of natural darkvision made their sight just as good, if not better, than their mothers. Human-sired mermaids lost the color variation between front and back, trading it for a human-like pinkish hue that changed into scales at their upper thigh instead of waist. The general changes seemed strange enough, but each child's lower half also took on the characteristics of a random fish species. It could look like anything from a barracuda to the brightly colored fish found on the southern reef. Thankfully, this mostly affected coloration and some changes in fin shape. As with other monster girls, if the fish type had a more colorful male for the sake of mating, the little girls took on the brighter coloration.

Sadly, Hali's ancestors suffered the heartbreak of dozens of infant deaths after discovering their new compatibility with humans. Before the change, merfolk young hatched from their eggs further along in development and were immediately able to eat the tiny fish, shrimp, and sea flora their parents brought. This meant the original merwomen never breastfed and never developed nipples or the means to produce milk. Areas on the front of the mer-woman's breasts were highly sensitive and brought them great pleasure but served no real purpose. Only the mermen's preference for the mounds of flesh kept the trait alive.

Upon hatching, the new infant mermaids ate what their mothers offered and enjoyed the taste, but the food often made them violently ill. Or worse, the child slowly wasted away as though starving, despite their full belly.

As one mermaid watched in despair as her newborn slowly starved to death, she finally noted an important difference between her and her daughter. The little girl had the little dark bumps on either side of her chest like the humans. She also noticed that when holding her daughter close to her breast, the child often began sucking on the soft flesh as though driven by instinct. The mermaid swam to the surface and approached some human fishermen for help, hoping they could explain her daughter's behavior and this wasting sickness.

The desperate merwoman was initially met with disgust and rejection. Merfolk of the time had developed a mutual respect for the humans who lived off the sea's bounty. But that relationship had become strained with the emergence of the monster girls. Many humans now lumped the merfolk, especially the mermaids, with these sexually aggressive half-breeds.

Eventually, calmer heads and compassion won out. The mermaid followed the boat back to shore, where the fishermen brought out a human wet-nurse who agreed to feed the mer-child.

The human woman cradled the baby mermaid and lifted her out of the water as she began to suckle. It was then they discovered the next generation of mermaids could also shapeshift. The child's lower half split and transformed into human legs as her scales and fins disappeared. The only indications of her true form remaining were the spines on her ears, the webbing between her fingers, and the gill slits on either side of her torso, which promptly expelled the water in her lungs so she could breathe air and completely soaked the wet-nurse.

Within a handful of minutes, color returned to the mer-child's face, and she stopped showing signs of distress. The mermaid later returned to her village to tell them of her discovery. Other mermaid mothers followed her example, and the fishing village reached out to its neighbors for wet-nurses to help save the mer-children. Understanding this would likely be a long-term arrangement, the fishermen built an underwater creche from poles and nets to protect the growing girls from predators. As Hali's ancestors sent out word of this change in their children's needs, an envoy from another village arrived with a similar revelation. The milk from a nursing monster girl could also save this new generation.

The envoy's village captured a monster girl near the water's edge shortly after she gave birth. Using their innate magic that let others breathe underwater, they brought her and her baby back to the village's moonpool. Although visitors from the surface were rare, many merfolk villages maintained these for housing or imprisoning air-breathers. The monster girl was kept healthy and well-fed as long as she continued nursing the village's babies. Though able to understand and speak common, the woman was almost feral, and withholding food proved the only way to get her to cooperate.

Hali's ancestors relayed their findings to the visiting mermaid before she continued on her way, then sent out their own messengers to inform other villages how to save their daughters. The mermaids returned with news that many other communities had already reached similar conclusions with varying degrees of success.

When the first generations of the mer/human hybrids grew into adults and eventually became pregnant, they discovered that their breasts functioned like a human's and were not just for show anymore. Within a handful of years, mer society no longer needed the assistance of humans or monster girls to keep their daughters healthy.

A few generations later, the last of the original mermen and merwomen passed away, leaving the future of their race in the hands of the new mermaids. However, even centuries later, the disproportionate number of hunter merwomen who had children compared to the larger-chested farmers and gatherers made large breasts among mermaids a rarity, and Hali was not one of those lucky few.

Kal smiled at the mermaid and placed his hands on her hips. "It seems like I was just delivered to you. Perhaps I'm the gift?"

"For her or me?" she asked, glancing at Emru.

The mage's smile faded as he looked over at the huge monster girl next to them. "Just you, I'm afraid. I'm still working on how I feel about her."

Hali flicked her tail and slipped out of his hands, her face falling in disappointment. "That's too bad. I heard what Roka said before she threw you off the ship. You have two women willing to let you ravish them, and you want to know about this?" she asked, pointing at the buckle.

"I am frustratingly curious. It's a mage thing."

"Frustrating at least," said the mermaid as Emru made a sound much like a low chuckle. "Push the lever up to the first click to unlock it. The second click opens the buckle. Since the boat is in the water, it's safe to release Emru."

Grabbing the rope above this strange buckle, Kal pulled himself partway out of the water to examine it. The first thing he took note of was the scent. The contraption smelled delicious. Wiping a finger along its side, he realized they coated it with oil to protect the metal from rusting in such salty conditions. The oil must have been from the galley because the device smelled a lot like bacon. Ignoring the scent, Kal saw metal rods running through the steel plates on the front and back. The plates held all the inner workings in place and extended downward with cutouts for the rope to slide into. A flattened hook below the rope kept it from falling out. As he lifted the lever, the first click moved a rounded piece attached to the lever's bottom out of the way, freeing the mechanism inside. As he continued to lift, a long metal connector inside pivoted and pulled the hook at the bottom of the buckle to one side, releasing the rope.

The buckle dragged him through the water as it swung toward the longboat and the pulley above, but Kal hardly noticed. The mechanism seemed so laughably simple that he could hardly believe this was his first time seeing it. The mage committed what he could see to memory so he could make a drawing of it later. He planned on asking Tavorah for a diagram, but considering the crew's current opinion of him, he thought it best not to keep his hopes up.

Hali swam up beside him with the loop of rope from around Emru's mouth. She held a section inside the buckle's bottom part as Kal pulled the lever down until it clicked twice, locking it in. Kal let go of the rope only to be immediately dragged underwater by the mermaid as she pulled him back to Emru. When they reached the whale, Hali propelled herself onto Emru's back, then let her fins switch to legs before helping him out of the water. Standing just forward of the whale's blowhole, which he now knew was effectively her nose, the mermaid called out it was time to go to the ship's other side.

The mage braced himself in anticipation of the whale moving, but instead, Emru's lure rose up out of the water.

"Hali, you can't have sex with him on top of me. That would be cruel."

"I was just going to get him in the mood and see if he might change his mind about you," the mermaid pouted.

"That won't work, Hali. Look at his face."

The mermaid looked up at the mage. "Oh," she said.

The war in Kal's head showed in his expression. He kept telling himself that the woman in front of him and the whale beneath his feet were vastly different from the desert sandworms. But her slumping posture and the tendril attached to her back kept reviving memories of the sandworm's words and how she looked at him like little more than food.

That was part of the problem. He saw Emru as the creature beneath his feet with an extra part for interacting with humans, not as a monster girl like Hali. The image she presented didn't help. Her avatar, which he supposed worked better for her since she didn't use this smaller body as a lure, didn't try to hold herself or act like any woman he knew, human or monster-girl. The way her arms and legs hung limp made it almost impossible to see her as anything more than an extra appendage for mating.

Kal stepped forward, and Hali grabbed his arm. He smiled gently down at the mermaid and removed her hand. "I won't hurt her, I promise."

"That's not what your face said a second ago."

"I'm trying to figure things out, and I thought of something that might help."

"Okay then. But I'm holding you to your promise."

"That's fine," he said before turning back to the whale's avatar. "Emru, stand in front of me, please."

Emru's small body glided over until she was close enough to touch. A short distance behind her, the tendril rested upon her larger body and held the avatar up, so they were almost eye to eye.

Holding his hands out, he asked, "Can I touch you?"

The avatar shivered. "Please?" she begged.

"I'm sorry, but not like that. At least, not yet." The mage frowned, "I shouldn't be saying that. I don't know if I'll be able to work through this during the remainder of our voyage. But I want to try, and I'll need your help. Do you think you can do that?"

"I'll swim to the edge of the world if it means you will give me a baby," she replied, her eyes lighting up with hope.

"Since you mentioned swimming, we should start making our way to the other side of the ship," Hali reminded them.

Emru nodded and very slowly began moving forward to not dislodge her passengers. Instead of circling the ship to get to the other side, she swam out toward open water. "They won't need me again until the first longboat is full and they're ready to move everything over to the other side and launch the second one," she said.

Kal took a moment to get used to the whale's motion as her tail pushed them through the water before continuing. The mage reached out, placing his hands on the avatar's hips while willing himself not to jerk his hands away. Her skin felt unusually thick and almost leathery, but that didn't surprise him, given how harsh the environment inside a whale's mouth must be. Emru whimpered and shivered at his touch, to which Kal raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I've never been touched by a man I didn't sing to," she explained, blushing.

"So, I won't be your first human?" he asked, pulling the avatar down until her feet rested flat on her whale body.

"No, but I always felt guilty afterward because those men didn't really want to be with me, so I stopped singing to find men. About a year passed before I met a ship crewed entirely by women, most of them monster girls," she said, shooting a smile at Hali

"That feeling is becoming more common among your kind." The mage straightened her knees and pushed down slightly on each leg before saying. "Maintain that pressure on your feet."

"Okay," she replied. "What am I doing this for?"

Kal stepped back, "This body is human. But you don't act like a human, and you don't move like a human. In some human cities, its worst criminals are hung by the neck as punishment. Once they die, their bodies go limp and look a lot like you when you just hang from... that," he said, pointing at the tendril coming out of her back.

Emru cringed, "I look like a dead human?"

"I'm sorry, but yes, especially yesterday when your skin was pale and looked water-logged. You look much nicer now that you gained some color back. You don't look quite so much like a corpse." He took hold of the avatar's upper arms and pushed her shoulders up into a more natural position. "I'm just working on your posture now."

The avatar looked over at Hali. "Why didn't anyone tell me I looked like a dead human?" she asked with a hint of accusation in her tone.

"Because we like you for who you are and how you help us," she answered. "We don't care what you look like. We all understand that your color goes back to normal after a few days as you spend more time out in the air."

"But is what he said why nobody comes to visit me on my first day back?"

Hali blushed with shame, "Sorry."

Kal stepped over to Emru's side. Placing one hand on her upper chest and another on her tailbone, he gently pushed until she stood up straight, then lifted her head slightly with a finger under her chin. "Now hold that position," he instructed before stepping back to stand beside the mermaid.

The avatar frowned. "This isn't comfortable."

"That's expected. This body isn't used to holding itself up or doing much of anything besides talking. Try to stay like that as long as you can."

The whale's avatar looked at Hali for help.

"Sorry, Emru, but he's right. You look a lot nicer standing like that."

"Focus on the bottom of your feet and maintain that pressure while walking toward us," Kal suggested.

Emru's jerky, stumbling attempt at walking looked so unnatural and disturbing the mage had her stop after only a couple steps. "That bad?" she asked.

"Yes," said Kal as Hali nodded emphatically. The mage perked up after a moment's thought and said, "Try lifting yourself just off the ground and moving forward but hold your legs together."

"Okay, but why do you need me to do this? Humans don't float around like that."

"Because I'm thinking about your future," said Kal while reaching behind his back to tuck the flight rune further into his trousers. "Let's say you run across a boat with some human men on it. You may want to have some fun with them but don't want to sing at them to do it. Ria, store my shirt, please," he mumbled to the pouch on his belt before turning back to the whale's avatar. "Now, do you want to approach them doing this?" As his shirt disappeared, he did his best impression of Emru's attempt at walking. The avatar shied away from the sight. Human legs weren't meant to move like that, and Emru thought he was just making fun of her until she saw the apologetic look on Hali's face. Kal stopped doing Emru's weird walk and waved to get her attention. "Or would you rather look like this?" he said before diving into the water.

A few seconds later, he rose out of the water beside Emru's whale body and floated toward her, arms to either side and legs together with one slightly bent at the knee. He brushed his wet hair back with one hand while a minor cantrip removed the excess water from his face. Kal's intense gaze rooted Emru's avatar in place as Kal landed in front of her. The mage wrapped an arm around her waist before pulling her tight against his body. "Or would you rather look like this?" he said in a low, almost growling voice.

The avatar took short, shallow breaths as she stared up at him. Kal felt her nipples poke his chest as they hardened. Emru's smaller body shivered moments before she gasped and reached down to cover her crotch. "How?" she asked, then let out a long moan as an orgasm swept over her. Though he doubted it was necessary, Kal held her for the next few seconds until she finally relaxed in his arms.

Hali came up beside them, "Did she...?"

Kal nodded.

"But how?" Emru panted, leaning her head against him. "You didn't even touch me down there."

"I don't have an answer. I've seen human women climax just from sucking me off, and a swordswoman friend of mine says she sometimes cums during her morning workout. I don't understand how or why."

"I understand why," said Hali.

"You do?" Kal asked as Emru's avatar perked up.

The mermaid reached between her legs for a moment, then held her fingers up for the other two, spreading them to show it wasn't water making them shine in the sunlight. "I'm soaked just from watching. I might have done the same thing if you did that when we first met."

The mage smiled before looking down at Emru's avatar, "Are you okay?"

"No," she said, refusing to look at him. "I'm extremely embarrassed and can't believe that happened. At the same time, I want you inside me so bad it almost hurts."

Kal sighed. "And there's part of the problem. I have three possible answers for that with other monster girls, and all of them are very enjoyable. With you, I have two more options. One would likely kill me, and the other is very unappealing."

"Even if you swam into my mouth, I wouldn't kill you," said Emru.

"I know that. The other end is what might kill me. Humans only have so much blood, and my cock is enchanted to match the size of the woman I'm with. If it grew large enough to fit inside you back there, there wouldn't be enough blood left for the rest of me."

The seconds following his statement were silent except for the sound of the whale's tail pushing through the water. Hali broke the quiet by bursting into laughter.