Spirits of the Earth

Why she did this to herself, she would never know.

Maybe she hated herself. It was certainly a good explanation. It was a really good explanation, now that she thought about it. It would explain why she was hanging so close to the edge of human civilization, why she lingered in the shallow water, watching the reflections of fire dance in the surface above her. Watching the ones who had caused her so much misery in her existence. Watching them.

Humans. Laughing, smiling, cheering humans. Humans waving fire in torches. Humans greeting each-other, hugging and kissing. Everything that she had now been denied.

Her lips bared back to reveal sharp teeth, tail flicking the water agitatedly. The waves lapped along her back, pressing against her dorsal fin. Hands sunk into the soft sands, claw-like nails digging further and further. Humans. They were the reason she was here, stuck. Never could she venture so far into the ocean again, not while this curse afflicted her, making her cling to land like a desperate child who clings to a piece of driftwood, never wanting to get sucked far out into the sea. This curse that forced her to be one of them, for days at a time, burning underneath their harsh sun, her tongue twisting on harsh words, and her strange limbs buckling, unused to bearing a weight they were never meant to.

But for now, she was not. Her powerful muscles rippled along her tail, gills pulsating in the water, taking sweet breaths in a place that most find inhospitable. The chain mail that hung over her chest, the relic from some fallen knight, fluttered around her small torso. How good it felt to be in the ocean. But how much were her days numbered. Her black eyes darted to the moon hanging above her, fat and round. Only a sliver was gone. Tomorrow, she would be denied the ocean's watery embrace. Tomorrow, she would be forced among them.

Finally, she pushed back from the beach, puffing sand around her. She carried her trident in her left hand, a weapon four feet long with three lethal prongs. It was her comfort, the only thing that remained of her past life. Living her family legacy... Neptune. How noble and wonderful. Something that gave her a purpose.

And now? Now, she had none. Just anger. Anger that drove her onward. That made her fear and loathe these humans that ruined her life.

Her tail cut through the water, the dorsal fin slipping above the surface once, before she swam, the swift current plastering her white hair against her face.

It was night. It was time to hunt. Her lips split into a demonic grin, serrated teeth gleaming.

It was time to feed.

Just another night wasn't it?

This time he wasn't exactly sure where he had ended up. No...no he WISHED he could do that. It must have been easy for humans. They could get drunk, hop onto a boat, stay drunk the entire time and then sober up at the end and wonder where they had got there. He didn't have that bloody luxury. No he was cursed to be sober all the time, and that was just...an unfair thing. He drank, he drank, and he drank, but no matter how much he put away he still was sober. It was originally meant to prevent him from not being distracted from his job but....

Here he didn't have that need.

"Balls!" The rough voice cut out over the somewhat quiet night, over the lapping waves of the ocean. The man was strange, he was foreign, in all sense of the words. He didn't look like someone from the island, and he didn't really look like someone from the mainland either. He looked...different. It was hard to put a finger on what exactly made him different. It might have been his strong jaw, his broad shoulders, his really bronzed skin, and the missing eye...but it was his general attitude perhaps. He strode along the beach like a man with too much power and not a fear to use it either.

His large boots made rather distinct imprints in the sand as he walked along the shore, a small barrel in one finger-less gloved hand. Ugh...he really wished that this stuff worked. The barrel had a large seven inch knife stuck into it, and he pulled it free to take a swig from the barrel. His left eye socket was covered with a black leather patch, one that had a string on top and a string on the bottom to keep it securely in place. He was tired of having people tell him to cover up the empty socket, so he made sure to get one that wouldn't fall off. His other eye was just...he should have gotten a second eye patch. People were usually unnerved by the fact he had no iris or pupil, but a simple hangman noose silhouette instead.

He drained the small wooden barrel and put the knife away in his belt. With a belch he suddenly threw the barrel with all his might at the ocean, watching the thing float and bob...mocking him somehow. The man reached up and readjusted the worn brown fedora on his head and scowled angrily. The man's face was scarred, well, his whole body was too but thanks to the clothes he wore the rest of the scars on his body were hidden. Not that he really wanted to, he liked his scars, they were badges of honour, they showed every fight he had won.

He looked back to the ocean, back to that bobbing...mocking...barrel and he waded into the sea toward it. He got up to his waist and took his knife from his belt once more. With a quick movement his knife sailed quickly through the air, sinking into the barrel and causing it to sink. Bloody hell! First he decides to go to this rather backward island, and now he ends up losing his good knife!

And...what the hell was that in the water? He swore he had just seen a fin pop up above the water. A shark? It'd been a while since he'd fought a shark! Now if he could get it to come at him...he started to splash his hands in the water. Movement was supposed to attract them right?

Her swimming was effortless. One small flick of her tail was enough to let her body coast through the warm waters, her being streamlined to waste as little energy as possible while she swam. Less energy exerted, so when she decide to hunt, all of her energy could be focused into hunting, into tearing her prey to small ribbons.

Something jarred all of her senses just as she was about to head to deeper water. Something had broke the surface of the otherwise placid ocean, bobbing. Sekhet turned on a dime, her eyes narrowed at the wooden barrel which bobbed in the ocean.

Humans. All of them were vile creatures. Throwing their trash and shit into the ocean... they didn't care about anyone except themselves.

The liquid around her resonated with the sound of bootsteps. Clomping, ungainly, ungraceful bootsteps. Splashing. Every instinct was on high alert, the sound of a wounded creature struggling in the water bringing her closer, until her belly scraped sand and her fin cut through the surface, baring it to the chilly night air.

A human. Drunk, he appeared. Stomping toward the litter that he had put in the water himself. She bared her teeth again as he flung a knife into the barrel. Was this a challenge? Did he dare to tangle with her? His image on the surface was rippled, distorted- the most she could make out was that he was a man, and had an eye covered by a patch. Good! He was blinded on one side. She could get away without him noticing, if she stuck to that side...

Just as she was about to turn and go back, more ripples echoed through the water. She spun, her eyes narrowing, as this idiotic human splashed about like a dying seal. For a second, anger blazed within her. Did this human realize he could be killed?!

And then... the grin reappeared on her face.

He wanted a fight.

She tightened the grip on her trident, and backed away from the sand slightly, floating. How much she had ached for a good fight. And if she had killed the human... well. It was just a part of her job, wasn't it?

Her whole body relaxed. And then, she charged, her tail slamming the water, propelling her forward at a speed which was exhilarating. She bared her teeth, and then thrust her trident in front of her, aiming for the man's legs.

Just wait until he realized that what he decided to mess with wasn't his fisherman's shark.

It was all going to be about reflexes, and who had the faster ones.

He was a quick man, there were few who could match those reflexes...few humanoids anyway. But this was a shark wasn't it? They weren't known for the best of reflexes...they were known for being great hunters though. This wasn't one of the big ones though, they appeared from below and ate them that way as a quick surprise. No way something was going to be below him in this water level! So he would at least have the upper hand when it came that.

But would he even get the attention of this shark? He was in shallow water, even for a shark. Would it dare risk beaching itself for a meal as tough as he? The answer of course was obvious when he saw that fin again for just a moment, piercing the ocean surface to tell him that it was indeed going to be time for a fight.

Stupid shark.

Something however caught in the light. Something very wrong with the charging. shark. His eye cut away the ocean depths only to find that what was charging at him, wasn't just a shark. It wasn't just a shark at all! The damn thing was a person...that just looked like a shark...bit of a looker too...but the bitch had a trident! His mind had to work fast, because she was moving just as quickly. The best thing for him to do however would be simple...simple and a little unfair, but she was using a weapon. That wasn't fair either. He let some small threads of power form around his legs, amplifying his muscles as he crouched. He'd have to be stronger for this, and a bit of magic was his only hope.

His muscles tensed as he crouched, and just as she got to the right point he jumped! It must have been a strange sight to anyone watching, seeing a man suddenly leap from the water as a shark approached. But his intent wasn't to escape. Oh no, that would be cowardice. Instead it was to come down on the trident's nice flat surface, and drive her weapon straight into the sand bed below with his weight!

Sometimes he thought himself too clever for his own good. He figured if he missed, he'd land on her, and he'd still have most of the advantage. Having a wrestler's feet near your head and face was just as bad as having their arms near your stomach and chest.

Oh, she could almost taste it. His surprise. How these humans never saw it coming... All of them thought that mermaids were pretty little things, pretty little things with fins that sang and sang. They never saw a mermaid that had teeth, a mermaid who knew the taste of blood in her mouth and who was trained all her life to fight. And now, she craved it. Her nostrils widened to inhale the sweet scent of the man's lifeforce, her body crying out for the taste of flesh... Hell, the man was crouching, ready to give up. Every muscle sang in the victory she knew she had. A fighter's spirit that never heard the word "lost".

But something happened, something she failed to predict. The man leapt out of the water, and came crashing down on the flat of her trident. Sekhet screeched as the trident was torn away from her grasp, wrenched from her fingers, and buried into the soft, unyielding sand of the beach. Her weapon, suddenly gone, all by a bloody human that could jump! But oh no, never would she give up. Animal instinct and training came easily to her, as easy as breathing.

This was a fight.

As he landed, she lashed again, trashing her tail to bring her further to the surface, clawed hands grasping for his legs. And she propelled herself forward, an audible "click" as her jaw unhinged to reveal rows and rows of serrated teeth. And she launched, snapping, hoping that her teeth would sink into the yielding flesh of the man's leg, waiting for the taste of flesh and blood in her mouth.

It hadn't been graceful, it hadn't bee complicated, but it made up for it in success at least. While he really didn't want to break out the magic so early in the game, he had no choice. He liked his legs, they were always better off not being skewered by a giant fork. If she hadn't decided to bring the damn thing into a fight, he wouldn't have had to resort to such a cheap tactic but...

That was life wasn't it?

If she couldn't adapt...then she'd die. That was the law wasn't it? The law of gravity and physics was on his side for the most part as he came down, exerting all that weight and pressure. The trident sunk smoothly into the ground below him. He swore that he could have heard the strange merthing cry out at that! Good! It served her right really. However, it left him a little off balance, but as she let go he came down to pin the thing straight into the sand.

Something had grabbed at his legs though, he presumed it was her...and something was still coming at him. With a shark, this would have been easy. Damn sharks didn't have a really flexible body, they were all stuck in one direction. She however, was part human...and she was doing something stupid. She was biting him. He only could be grateful that he at least had worn some thick clothing, but there was still pleasure shooting up his leg. Ah...that was the best. It was like electricity running through his body...it made his heart race and beat fast...and it made him excited. This was as good as any screw!

The man just decided to let himself crouch a little bit as she sunk her teeth into him, his arms diving into the water and trying to find their way around her body. If she wanted to play like this, he could play like this. If he managed to get his arms around her, he'd start squeezing, but first he had to hope he could catch her.

More anger boiled inside of her as her keepsake weapon sank into the sand. These bloody humans! Nothing was sacred to them! And that trident, that weapon, was the only thing she was allowed to bring from her home, even if the weapon was tainted by her existence. It was her weapon, it felt good in her hands, and no human was going to take away the only link she had left of her kingdom.

His blood tasted sweet in her mouth, and his flesh was juicy, tender, though... there was something almost off-putting about it. But she didn't let that distract her. She had prey in her jaws, and her eyes rolled back up into her skull, to protect that delicate part of her body. Jaw pressure increased, pounds per square inch as she bit down, harder and harder, her teeth slicing through his skin and muscle as blood poured into her mouth. How delicious it was, and every small taste gave her energy, ignited the predator inside of her.

But something was wrong with this human. Instead of struggling, as she had expected, he was reaching deeper into the water, and grabbing her. Her tail writhed in his grasp, thrashing and slashing, the sandpaper skin of her scales scrapping against the exposed fingertips of his gloves. She wrenched her jaws away, taking away flesh in her mouth, and twisted her body, turning in a u as her hands grasped at his arms, claws sinking into his clothing. Her jaws snapped again, attempting to slice through clothing and into the meat of his arm as her tail squirmed and thrashed in his grip, the fin attempting to slam his hands away, or his face, anything to buffer him, as she scrabbled with her hands, trying to tear skin and clothing away. She wouldn't give up.

There was a lot going on that it was almost too hard to follow. When he fought, he usually picked a specific thing to work on...but this was no ordinary fight. This was in the water, and it wasn't his home turf...it was hers...and that wasn't EVERY a good thing now was it? He couldn't exactly even the odds easily...but he would keep fighting. He could die here sure...and judging from the electric shocks of pleasure running up his leg, he very well might have that happen.

Thank the Gods he had been given good healing abilities.

However his leg was very much giving out on him quickly. It'd heal in a couple hours, but for now it would no doubt become very dead for the next little while. Shit. Maybe he should have kept his knife...or pulled out one of the other various knives he kept on his person. Not to mention he was just feeding her blood, that couldn't be good. Sharks went crazy for blood, and with someone this vicious, he would be surprised if she wasn't getting something from that.

She was struggling now, his hands lit up with the delight of pleasure as she thrashed and wriggled in his grip. It wouldn't work to grab her now, more so as she was starting to try and grab at his arm to stop him. He let himself fall onto one knee, his bad knee, hoping to pin her now that she was in a more advantageous position. Then he got to doing the thing that he knew second best: Punching. One hand would swat hers away, and with him above her and his knee hopefully pressing on what he hoped was her, he'd be able to start getting in some rather good shots.

His upper body would twist, his arm would extend and sink into the water toward his foe...and it would retract out of the water only to sink back into it once more. His rage fuelled him, as did his lust from the pleasure wracking his body. His fist cut through the water toward his foe, and he would continue his vicious assault, hoping that he was at least connecting with this attacks.

How foolish would it be if he were kneeling in water, bleeding profusely, punching the ocean instead of his foe?

His blood was frothing in the ocean, and the flesh that disappeared down her gullet only egged her on further. Animal instinct was taking her over, combining with her training to make her a deadly creature, fueled by the base need to fight, to survive, to win. Some disgusting, filthy human, now bleeding in the salt water that coaxed the blood out of his body, was going to be no match for her. And he had literally fed her. Everyone knew you don't feed sharks, unless you want them to attack.

But then he fell, and his knee pinned her wriggling body into the sand, her powerful muscle and sinew rendered useless. Her scream tore through her throat as she struggled violently, trying to free herself. Being beached was the worst position for any creature of the ocean. It rendered them helpless, defenseless. Most animals would go into a panic, beach themselves further. It was this thinking that she forced herself to stop, relaxing her muscles, keeping herself from thrashing. She could just see his watery form pulling back his fist, and she knew what was coming next was going to hurt.

His first punch connected with her collarbone, and she gave out a gasp of pain, stars behind her eyes. And then his second punch hit her sternum, and she snarled, something primal tearing out of her throat as pain laced around her ribcage.

She had a last defense, and now was her time to use it.

As he pulled back, she closed her eyes, and lashed out with her hand, aiming for his throat. But something built around her, water raising above her, spinning faster and faster. A waterspout, and it went straight for his face, attempting to distract him enough to fall backwards, to release her.

((Eeehehehehe, this is so fun! x3 For a fight of course! I rarely do them, and I hope it isn't too confusing xD))

His eye had to do a quick search around him, just in case he found himself facing more of these bloody beasts. His blood was in the water, and some things could smell that for miles. He didn't want to have to fight more of these...well...at the minute he felt like he could take on an army of them. His muscles were surging with power, his body was filled with endorphins, but it wasn't like he needed them, he didn't really feel pain unless it was life threatening.

Right now though, his body was telling him that it was quite alright.

While his ploy sort of worked, he really wished he'd gotten the full upper hand on her. Getting the upper knee and the upper fist on her was just about as good, but he really had wanted to life the bitch out of the water and slam her down onto her head. He had never pile-drivered a person in the water, at least not with the hope to hurt. How much could that be with all that sand though? Still. Woulda been at least interesting, considering she probably weighed a little bit. He'd have to measure her later, but he was almost sure she was at least nine feet long.

Each time his fist connected he felt a wave of satisfaction flow through him. It was sweet to know that something was at least working in his favour. She stood no chance about this, especially being forced down like she was. Of course, he didn't count on her next little move. Her slashing arm was simply allowed to graze along his arm as he brought up in his defence. However, something else was coming right at him too, and it wasn't something he could block that easy. A great burst of water shot up at him, and he stared straight into the water spout as it did so, but the force knocked him backwards. The only thing he could think to do was to bring his other leg out, trying to sweep it underwater and aim a kick for her. Hopefully the head to daze her, but as he felt himself falling into the water he really just hoped it would connect anywhere.

((This is fun, and no way is it confusing! One of the better fights I've gotten to roleplay!))

Perhaps later she would reflect on the fact that this human certainly had some fortitude behind him. She had taken a nice chunk out of his leg, he was bleeding in the water which means that blood clotting is tricky at the best (not to mention attracting more predators) and yet he was still fighting her. He either had a great will to live, or he was one of the most stupid humans that Sekhet had the absolute misfortune to come across. The worst part was that he was actually hurting her, landing hits on her and causing her pain. The only thing she was grateful for was the conditioning to pain she had received from both her training and her curse, that she was able to fight through it and continue her attacks. It didn't help her on the one day, her last day, but now, she was only protecting herself.

While she felt a flash of frustration as her slash caught nothing more than the clothing on his arm and not on the soft flesh of his jugular, something did work for her. The water spout she had sent had knocked him backwards, her tail lashed as she was freed from the sand, power returning to her. Once again, she wasn't helpless, about to be beached. However, she was still weaponless.

She turned to the side as her hands brushed the sand, and she didn't realize the kick was coming for her until it was too late. The side of his foot connected with her shoulder, sending her sideways, knocking her away from her trident that was just inches away from her fingers. She groaned without meaning to, but her tail gave one flick and she was back to reaching for her trident. There were a few dizzying seconds where she felt nothing at all, and then...

There! Stone! Sekhet roared as her hand clasped her trident, and with one yank she brought it forth from the sand, and swung her weapon with all her might, aiming for him, for any part of him. One hit that would strike him further into the water, into her realm, and there she could finish him off, and end this fight once and for all.

((Whew! That's good to know on all accounts! This may be my last post before bed xD))

She wasn't fighting a human. Oh no. He might have been a human at one point, but he had burned all of that away long ago in the fires of war, of justice, of slavery and freedom. He was a Savaros through and through, and they were far greater than humans. Already his leg had at least stopped bleeding for the most part, there might have been a trickle but the blood vessels had started to seal themselves up. He'd had worse, the flesh would regrow, which might be a bit confusing for the shark girl. That would show the bitch though, she might actually be scared to know that she was fighting something that could regenerate himself. Granted, if he wasted all his energy on doing that, he'd sap his strength for fighting. Best to just...let it happen as naturally as possible.

At least he had managed to stop her from ending this too quickly. He'd had his throat slit before, but not by anyone who wanted him dead right away. If he had that happen here, he was going to be in real trouble. That would have to be avoided at all costs. Unlike his foot, which solidly connected with something thankfully. It didn't appear to be her head sadly enough, because she was still moving around down there. He tried to take a breather, his form barely finding itself against sand and rock as he saw something coming straight for him again.

That god damn trident! He braced himself as she came at him, his lightning reflexes moving to grab the deadly weapon's outer prongs. This would not be the problem though. The problem was when he hit solid ground. Instead of going backwards however, he was headed more down thanks to her damn angle. Again he took a deep breathe as he was driven downward. Though it really wasn't far at all, he still found himself with both hands against the trident, trying to hold the shark woman from stabbing him. All he had to do was not run out of air though...and with her bearing down on him, trident so close to his belly, he had to do something fast. Getting a better grip on the middle tine of the trident with one hand, his other came up and he aimed a jab of his finger straight at her face, looking to perhaps gouge and eye.

That worked with sharks after all, why not shark people?

((XD No problem! I understand people sleep. I, ah, should be getting to bed as well, but heeey, who knows!))

There was something that was off putting about this whole fight, and it was when she fully looked into the water that she realized what it was.

The lack of blood. Her eyes went wider as she realized... the son of a bitch was healing himself! Her breath caught in her lungs as this epiphany came crashing down on her. A thousand possibilities came to mind. Magic, the kind that humans knew of... She might have been fighting a mage. Cursewords exploded from her. Gods dammit! Of course she was fighting the only human who could heal himself! If she had him bleeding fully in the ocean... well, stamina wouldn't be a concern. But now it was. The blood and flesh had energized her, but not enough to fight a man who could regenerate himself to the death. It was a magic unknown to her kind, or at least to this extent.

The short breather that both of them had caught was enough to reset her priorities. She was going to have to drag this man, mage, whatever he may be, down into the water, and fast. He might regrow limbs, but Sekhet doubt that he could make air with a lack of gills.

Thankfully, her attack with her trident seemed to connect, somewhat. At any rate, he was off his precious land, driving back down to her realm, where he wasn't in power, in full control. However, his hands were on her trident, gripping at the tines as if they were his lifeline. She was going to prove him wrong. She pulled the trident back and thrust, trying to get the sharpened tines to connect to something, to yank at more of his flesh. Her tail beat the water as she began pressing him downward, deeper into the water.

But then he did something which caught her off-guard. His hand came up, and before she realizing it, her eye was jabbed, forced back into her head. It rolled upward, and she howled in pain, stabbing blindly with her trident, her tail thrashing as she tried to sink him deeper and deeper. Survival was kicking in, and Sekhet was starting to wonder if fighting was really such a great decision.

((Yeah, we love to sleep don't we? Damn us and our...need for sleep.))

This was just a very interesting night, wasn't it?

He really wished now that he was drunk for it actually. No...no he really wanted to remember this actually. Because there was no telling what could happen at this point. She was a great god damn fighter after all...and if only she was a little more human...that might be fun. Well hell, she still had a mouth right? If he avoided the teeth he might be safe.

There was a little bit of rubbing against his stomach. He could feel the trident tines rubbing and smacking against his stomach, occasionally piercing the skin and tearing at his clothes. This wasn't bad though...she hadn't managed to get through the muscle or anything like that. Thank the Gods he worked out and managed to get a bit of muscle on it. He never thought it would have saved his life but...it had apparently.

The man had wished that he had been in a better position...but at least they weren't in deep water. They were in somewhat of his world...but he had to get her more to his damn it! He held onto the damn weapon though and started to get his bearing. This was hopefully going to be what won him this stupid match. Well that and poking in her eye seemed to have worked. He decided to just....see what happened with a rather bold move. She stabbed and stabbed at him, and he managed to prevent any harm but...when she pulled away again, he let go, and this time used both hands to kick himself through the water out of the way of the trident.

Now it would get interesting, because as she thrashed her tail and propelled herself forward, she would no doubt somewhat zip past him...and that would allow him to grab hold of her and start squeezing for all he was worth. His plan was to try and trap her arms at her side...that always hurt, having your own arms crushed up against her. Now he just had to hope that his arms got around her and stayed around her.

((xD Damn sleep indeed... But hey, at least this topic stays~ These two are quite a match for each-other.))

A small sense of satisfaction cascaded over her as she felt her trident connecting with parts of his stomach. She, unfortunately wasn't skewering him like a fish, as was her intention, but at least she was leaving marks. And there was blood in the water. Her nostrils widened to take in the scent of the substance, proving her with a sliver of energy. But it wasn't anything to restore what energy she had already lost. She could feel it seeping out of her with every fin stroke, every slash of her trident. She wasn't meant to be a stamina fighter. Her style had been to attack ruthlessly and then wait for her prey to die. It was what her bloodline was known for-- slow, painful deaths. Sekhet could only be grateful for the fact that she could drag fights out when needed, but the fact that they weren't in deeper water, where she could swim away and come back later, was taking its toll. Her gills fluttered furiously on her neck, extracting as much oxygen as possible. The muscles along her tail burned with fatigue, but she had to continue, if she had any chance of getting out of this at all.

She was still half-blinded, her right eye smarting as it was rolled back into her skull, forcing her left eye to do the same. All she knew was that she had to keep dragging the man downward, down to the watery depths from whence she came. She swam forward, powerful strokes of her tail keeping them angled downward so the sand would no longer be on his feet, where he struggled and choked on water. She jabbed blindly with her weapon, trying to use its reach to her advantage. Anything to drag him deeper.

But this was a clever man, and when she had pulled back and launched, he had swam for the surface again, kicking off her. She had no way to decelerate, and a flick of her tail sent her sailing past him. Panic engulfed her for a second, and she spun, trying to locate him.

But he located her. Hands wrapped around her arms, torso, pressing her elbows into her own ribcage. A scream tore from her throat as she thrashed in his grasp, smacking blindly with her tail.  She wasn't going to die like this! She wasn't going to die at the hands of a human!

(((Where would the topic have gone? It wouldn't just leave us would it?! That'd be terrible!)))

His only hope was that he could outlast her. His stamina was incredibly difficult to drain, but he supposed that this was doing it quite well. Fighting in the water, where your movements were a little more difficult, and you had lost a bit of blood, muscle and flesh as well...your body was trying to regenerate such things but...all of that was taking a bit out of him. But as long as his heart and adrenaline were pumping, he wasn't going to lose this. He'd snap his own neck before he let her kill him. A bit extreme, but losing to a fish wasn't exactly high on his priority list.

And now they were on somewhat even grounds. Of course, her being blinded helped to make things a bit more fair. Granted she still had a weapon, but at least he was used to having one eye, while she would be thrown for a little loop. Her depth perception might get a little messed up in a few hours if she had to keep her eye closed but...the fight wasn't going to last that long he hoped.

If it did he was going to need to get more air.

Luckily one of his attacks finally was paying off. He was rather happy for that, and despite her thrashing, he found his footing finally, and within seconds he was popping out of the water with her, gasping loudly as he finally could suck down some sweet air, all the while holding onto the thrashing mer-girl. Despite everything, he didn't want to kill her. She was a worthy foe, even for a cheater. However he couldn't just let her go. He needed something first. "Quit strugglin' you bitch!" He muttered angrily as he held onto her tightly, his feet digging into the sand. "Say I've won! SAY I'VE WON AND YOU LIVE!" He growled loudly as he gave her a hard squeeze, hoping that he'd be able to get her attention to some degree.

((It would be horrible! So, so horrible! And sorry for the wait, I got caught up doing stuff for the parents!))

Panic began to seize her insides, despite her better training. This man was an extremely worthy opponent, one that matched her prowess, and was even bettering her in some aspects. She wasn't so prideful as to think her the best fighter out there. There was so much of the world she had yet to see, so many creatures, magic, things that she had no knowledge of. But now, this man had the advantage.

A shrill cry tore out of her throat as she was ripped away from her oxygen, her gills pulsating uselessly in the land that she hated. She thrashed, even though it took away her breath, trying to struggle out of his grip. But her face contorted in pain as he pressed her sides, crushing her ribcage, her elbows slammed against her thin torso.

But never would she give in. She glared at him at his words, her black eyes unblinking, even if the last of the life-giving water was draining from her neck, even if her tail's beating was slowing. Admitting defeat, when she already had to... Never would she admit defeat to another human.

She snarled at him, bearing her teeth, and her tail thrashed the water again as she tried to struggle. It was her last stand. It all depended on how much she valued her life, or her pride.

((Hey! It's all good eh? We're on a forum! As you said the post will still be here! So don't worry! Though I must say I'm enjoying this far too much for my own good xDD))

He wouldn't deny it, he was only better because he was superior. That wasn't even arrogance talking either, that was...well that was just the truth. His body was MEANT for this sort of stuff. It was meant to keep fighting until the bitter end, no matter, to repair itself and to fight and avoid death at all costs. However,  it was also all the training he had done, all the fighting he had experienced, all the life he had lived that definitely put him over the top.

But he respected this shark thing, despite her bringing a trident to a wrestling match.

He could see that being out of water wasn't working for her all that well. He should have figured that really. How fragile she was right now...how fragile she was at any point. Those gills were her lungs, and they were on the outside. If he gave them a quick punch...she might die. Yet for someone so fragile, she wore no armour to protect those vital spots.

"Oh no! You're NOT getting away! Not after you chewed my leg you bitch." He snarled as he pulled her a bit further inland. He switched up his grip as she thrashed, he even stumbled slightly as his bad leg got slapped by what he assumed was her tail. He moved to having just one arm around her body, her arms now free as his other hand quickly moved around her neck. It wasn't to kill however, he was placing strange blue ribbons that leaked from his fingertips around her neck. He wound quickly, his leg now throbbing and weak, barely able to keep himself steady as he gave one last tug of the ribbons, and suddenly water formed around her gills in a strange collar almost, allowing her to breathe.

"Now calm down or I'll body slam you onto the shore and fight your fishy ass there!"

((XDD So am I~ These two are a match for each-other! I soo thought that Nexus wasn't going to have any respect for her, so this is a very pleasant surprise.))

Her desperation to escape, to survive, was getting the better of her training. Panic was starting to override her rationality, and fear. She couldn't die like this! She couldn't die on the shore of a human land, still wearing the skin of her species. She couldn't die at the hands of a scarred human, whose strange eye tracked her movements, the symbol of a human death etched into it. He wouldn't be the dictator of her fate.

A small bout of triumph echoed inside of her as her tail slapped on his bad leg, causing the man to stumble. But her throat closed on her strangled cry as he kept his arm around her, yet it was only... one? Her hands were free. She flexed her fingers experimentally, circulation returning down her arms. Immediately she wasted no time in grabbing his arms, her mouth open in a silent scream as her claws tore at his arms, trying to get them to release. Her tail drug across the sand as he pulled her inland, even though she still tried to thrash, pushing sand around them, the strange duo.

But then... something strange was happening with his hands. Blue tendrils of energy sprang from them, forming around her throat. For a second, her life flashed before her eyes, and she thought this might actually be the end. Her claws sunk deeper into his sleeves, searching for skin. And then...

... She was breathing?

Her gills expanded and she took in a choking breath, spluttering, as oxygen raced down to her burning lungs. She was hyperventilating, attempting to get as much of this oxygen as possible, from this strange collar around her throat. It felt like she was revitalized, though her energy was all but gone. And all this... from a human? What was he doing trying to save her?

His words finally made it to Sekhet's brain, overriding the survival instinct. And so, she stopped struggling, though her hands were still on his arms as a means for support. Her eyes were wide open, even if salty tears strained from the one that he had jabbed.

She simply looked at him, blinking.

Humans. They never failed to amaze her in their sheer insanity.

((Hah hah yeah, I wasn't sure how it would go but...a great fighter is always respected! If you can deal serious threat and harm to him, you can  believe that he'll have some respect for ya, no matter the gender xD))

What one may have failed to realize, was that the man that held her was not a bringer of death. Not always. The hangman's noose was both literal and figurative for him. It was a symbol of justice though. The wicked were hanged, the wrongly accused saw themselves freed, and the victims who's very lives were choked and oppressed would no longer be shackled. Of course, he did sometimes hang people but that was a different point all together. It was sometimes poetic justice.

He would be the one to decide her fate, and at this time...her fate was sealed. She would live, if only because of the impressive skills that she displayed against him. Still, he could feel a small victory, because despite being out of his element...he had still managed to get the upper hand...to some degree.

Though she slashed and hacked at his thick clothes, he was thankful to have worn them so that he could work his magic. The greater good would be worth any wound he sustained from her. Besides, it would just be more scars for him, and that was fine by him. He tried not to think of the large one that would be on his leg...his only hope that it would heal with only the outline of having been bitten.

After all had been said and done though, she thankfully stopped herself. She seemed to have understood his language, which was good, but he could always...acquire it if need be. She stopped thrashing about and trying to claw at him, now more holding onto him as she stared at him. Good. His hand came up to her face, more toward the back of her head. "Good, because I always wanted to do this." Suddenly his lips were against her own in a rough kiss. One could feel a raw power placed behind it as pressed against her own thin lips. He decided not to try and get his tongue into her mouth, she was surprised already and didn't feel like losing it to her sharp teeth. He did however run it quickly along hers, to get a taste, and as quickly as their rough kiss began, he broke it off to lick his lips. "Doesn't taste like fish...never woulda thought."

((XD Yeah, definitely! And Sekhet can respect a fighter as well. She just, uh... wishes he wasn't human. But being exiled, she doesn't think that she'll be able to meet any of her own kind anytime soon. At least not without getting run off again. But... oh wow Nexus. Oh wow. I... didn't see that.))

She could feel how thick his clothes were, and made a mental note to find something of the same material tomorrow. She... would need it. In this tropical sun. It would help quite a bit. Of course, she had gone through her four days before without such clothing, but still. She held onto the shred that came off in her hand, balling it tightly into her first. However, she still had to hold onto him with her claws, watching him. She hated to think that she was at his mercy... But begrudgingly, she realized this was the truth. Perhaps not entirely at his mercy, but dangling from his hands, out of the water, with her tail dragging along the sand... she wasn't in a position to do much.

Sekhet had no idea about the way humans went about things, so this was something of a sort of fascination to her. Why the hell he was gripping the back of her head was strange, and she raised an eyebrow at the movement, quizzically. He was certainly putting himself in a prime position for her to attack again, helping to brace her skull so she could lunge forward... Really, were all humans this mad or just him? And what he was saying... Try? Try what? She could only assumed he meant--

Their lips clashed, a sensation so alien and foreign that it made her gasp. Wait... wait... Oh no. Oh fuck no. He was... they were... oh by the sweet mother of pearl! His lips were on hers. He was... kissing her. Roughly. Invading her mouth. Her privacy. Her god damn senses! And then... oh by the sweet stars of heaven... Something warm and wet ran over her lips. His tongue. Oh gods, he was slipping her tongue! She felt sick. Violated.

The moment he broke away, and licked his lips, she could only stare. And then the next reaction was so natural that she couldn't help it.

Her stomach churned over, and the flesh and blood she had inhaled spilled out of her mouth, her spine arching as she heaved. It was a shark's reflexes-- throwing up something that might be poisoned or tainted. And by the gods, his saliva was pure poison! She gagged and spat until the last of his flesh and blood was gone from her stomach.

And then she resumed thrashing, desperate now to just get away from him, as every name in the book tore through her teeth, from the human language and her own native tongue. This man was mentally deranged, and Sekhet had to get the hell out of his grip. And now.

(((Hey, he's a fantastic tailor, he could make himself a little merman suit and things would be peachy! Of course it would look horribly racist and she'd hate him but still! He could do it! xDD Fights are more like fore play to Nexus, and weeeeeell, she is female. He might as well get a taste right?))

He wasn't too torn up about his clothes. He would repair them later when he got a chance. Not many tailor would have the skill nor the materials on hand to even really repair them anyways. But he did wince as she ripped some from his sleeve. That was just uncalled for wasn't it? You didn't see him grabbing and tearing at her chainmail. Sure that was a little hard to do but still, he wasn't trying it either.

Some people just had no respect. He should have expected that though because...well...she did come at him with a trident and all that.

He always liked it when they didn't expect things. He wasn't exactly easy to predict all the time. Sure, a haughty woman was usually something that he went after to knock her down a peg...but he had in the beginning though he'd just be fighting a shark. It was most certainly called for now wasn't it? The kiss was as much about experimentation as it was about dominance. He had won, and his prize was to get a taste of her! She was lucky he wasn't hungry and hadn't decided to follow her example by having a great bite out of her. She was just lucky that biting him and ripping from him was easily fixed. At first it seemed unexpected to her, and this was good. She didn't struggle or gasp, but she didn't lean into it or reciprocate.

They never did of course. After having a rather wild fight like this, one didn't expect your opponent to just lay on a big kiss right? He did however feel a little put out by the fact that she started gagging. "Mmm, musta been all the ale, apologies." At least the alcohol had sterilized his mouth, but it probably didn't make it taste or smell any better. He was pretty sure that the vomiting was a little excessive and offensive. His grip tightened around her again as she started thrashing. "Didn't. I. Just. Say. Something...about...the...THRASHING?!" He practically roared the last word, a primal and deep guttural sound as he started to drag her back up toward the beach. When he was able to stand easier he simple gave her a shove as best he could toward the shore.

"If you want to continue this so be it, but I'll stop that nice little collar around your neck and watch you die like a fucking fish." He spat at her, already getting back into a lower crouched position. She still had that long tail after all...

((xDD Oh yeah, I'm sure Sekhet would just love that. Some human trying to dress up as one of her own kind. And dear god xD I didn't think she would be worth getting a taste of. Yeah, her first kiss after being exiled is by a human. Wonderful.))

Her mind was still reeling with the feeling of some god damn sleazy man kissing her. A human. A human. No amount of stomach churning in the world was going to erase the feeling of his rough kiss invading her lips. Or his... tongue. Good fucking gods what was this human thinking?! No, no, she didn't want to know. She really didn't want to know. She just wanted to get the hell out of here, and quickly.

The fury of his words were felt on her, and she seemed stunned by the power that she could feel behind them. His reasoning, however, was lost on her mind. Why did he want to keep her, stop her from thrashing? She was not a creature of this land... Just what in the hell was he thinking? And he continued to drag her up the beach, her tail dragging like a dead weight in the sand.

She yelped as he shoved her onto the shore, and she sat up as best she could, placing a hand on the base of her tail to force herself upright. Sand now caked half of her body, uncomfortable and itchy across her skin, but her eyes were still watching him, filled with disgust and loathing. At first, she dug her hands into the sands and started to drag herself back to the ocean, but then he said something that made her stop.

Instinctively, her hands flew to the collar of water, and her eyes darted to the shoreline. With how far he had dragged her up, there was no way she could get back to the water without suffocating. And something told her that he wasn't going to throw her back out into the sea.

So with venom, she rounded on him, curling her tail, but she wasn't attacking. Watching him. Wary, untrusting. This situation seeped danger in so many ways, but she couldn't do anything to prevent it, not without killing herself. And she wasn't about to die yet.

She did turn her head and spit into the sand another time, and glared at him again.

"Sick," she hissed in a voice that was most definitely not human. It was growly, sharp, obviously spoken through pointed teeth.

Now how in the seven seas was she going to be able to get out of here?

((See, I was sure it would be a bad thing, which is why he wouldn't do it! Because that would be wrong! xDD And hey! Not by a human! A Savaros there's a big difference. She should be honoured.))

You didn't really want in the mind of the man before her. He wasn't a normal person, he wasn't human, he was something different, something special, something...well, sick. She at least stopped trying to fight him. Was it so hard to get into a fight, then want to talk with whatever you had bested? Was that really something difficult to ask? As the victor, and as a Savaros, she was probably lucky he was letting her off this easy. However, she seemed to have intelligence, and he didn't have a clue whether she was evil or had done something to warrant being killed.

A part of him still remembered that only the wicked should suffer.

"Yeah, that got your attention didn't it poppet?" He almost cooed at her as he slowly lowered himself onto his good leg, taking pressure off his now ruined one. It must have looked odd now...slightly concave with skin covering it. The muscle would all come back eventually but...for now he'd have to deal with a limp.

"Mm, sounds like me yeah. And only after ten minutes you figured it out. You should get a medal." He spoke sarcastically as he finally just fell back into a sitting position, letting the surf come in behind him and wash over him to some degree. "You fought well, bit of a cheater with the trident but...I don't find myself in many fights like that, especially with a woman. So I thought we could have a chat. The name is Nexus. Nexus Savaros, the Thread Master."

((XDD Oh yes, so wrong. Not to mention infuriating for her. xDD Oh yes... she should be honored. Unfortunately, she can't differentiate between a human and a monkey, really. If it doesn't look like a mermaid or act like a mermaid, it ain't a mermaid. That's about her definition.))

The way that he cooed to her set her teeth on edge. She pulled her lips back in a snarl, her back arching like an angry cat. Yeah, it got her attention, and she just spat the word "Sick" at him again, while also adding "disgusting" as she wiped her lips with the back of her hand. She didn't look at him as she did this.

She watched him carefully, as if expecting him to attack her at any given second. She placed no trust in anyone but herself. A human? As if she would place any trust in such a creature. But once he placed himself next to the surf, Sekhet clawed the soft sands and came to the gently lapping waves. She cupped her hands, letting the webbing catch water as she spilled it over her tail and skin, rubbing the saltwater into the dry places. In this form, she couldn't stand to be out of the water for long at all, but something told her that he wouldn't let her escape into the ocean. Not yet, anyways.

She was listening, but most of her attitude was rather aloof. Once he had stopped speaking, she had actually looked at him, even if she was still busying herself with keeping her body damp. Her eyes narrowed after he said his name, and she hissed. "I won't tell you my name, Nexus, Thread Master." Part of her withered at saying these human words so well. Another aspect of this curse. And part of her wondered what a thread master was. Her claws flicked at the water around her gills. It must have something to do with that.

She did narrow her eyes as he continued speaking. "I am not a woman, not of your kind. I am a mermaid." For a few seconds, she did nothing more than pour water over her tail, making sure she was always damp. Her gaze cut back into him, trying to bore into him. "My trident is my weapon. I was not cheating for using it. A trident is meant to attack. I only used what I had." She tightened her grip on her weapon, staring at it for a while, before glancing back at him. Why he still wanted to keep her like this was beyond her.

((Well I'm sure if she tried to dress up like a Savaros he'd be infuriated too so I can't really blame her xDD Well hey! Out of all the not mermaids to get kissed by, she at least got kissed by one of the higher tier not-mers right? That's gotta count for something.))

Yeah yeah, keep using the same words over again. He didn't really care what she thought, because in the end, he had won. He had won, AND spared her life, and spared her a lot of humiliation. Imagine if he had gone further, imagine if he had taken to more debauchery. She should have considered herself lucky that he hadn't gone further than a kiss, and tried to take a pound of flesh from her as well.

This almost felt familiar. He couldn't place where....but then again he'd held many people captive before...but under moonlight, that felt so familiar. He would have to shake that strange feeling off, it was unimportant. However, at least she was willing to talk to some degree. Most of those he shanghaied in such a manner were less than hospitable. "Not exactly polite, shame, thought you would have some sense of honour." It was only honourable after all, wasn't it? For them to have been in such a...heated battle, and now she won't share a few words while they recover?

"There's only one of my kind that's a female poppet, and she's a long way away." He sighed almost wistfully at her comment, shaking his head. He looked human, for the most part, but the eye should have given it away he thought. The eye wasn't human, not even close...but then again sometimes humans just had strange eyes. At her comment about using only what she had, he reached into his leather coat and began to pull things out. Blades, many different ones, knives of all different shapes and size, sticking them into the sand beside him. When he reached ten he stopped. "I had these on me at all time, but the fight wouldn't have been very fair now would it? There were so many times I could have just stabbed you and got it over with. But where's the honour in that?" He looked to all the blades and shook his head. His other one was still out there...

"At any time I could have filleted you. I could have used all I had...but how fun would that have been?" He asked as he turned his attention back to her, his eye rolling in the socket to focus on her. "I think after such things, I deserve your name. I have shared with you mine, and in our heated battle, I didn't kill you, though you tried to do the same to me. You owe me your name."

((XD Yes, that's true. Neither of them would appreciate the other dressing up. Though she could spare some of his own clothes for her own protection. xDD It probably does. After, you know, she's done upchucking her last meal. But at least her last meal wasn't fish!))

The mention of honor and being polite made her bristle again. She gripped her tail tightly as she spat. "I have honor, honor among my own kind! But humans... There is no honor among your people. You pillage and plunder with no regard to who you hurt." Her voice was laced with venom and hostility, but there was something faraway in her eyes as she spoke. Something haunted, almost.

But in a blink it was gone, replaced with the usual corrosive glare. Once he mentioned that there was only one "woman" of his kind, she looked at him strangely, and back to his eye. Ah... he probably meant that. A human who had a strange eye. So, what, there was only two of them? She didn't know, and didn't have enough curiosity to find out.

But then he began to pull out knives. Her eyes went wide in shock as each blade stuck definitely into the sand, its sharp edges gleaming at her mockingly. She drew away from the blades instinctively, drawing her tail closer to her, keeping a hand protectively on it and one gripping her trident. But he only explained that he could use them, and that he chose not to. By this, she should give her name, because he didn't try to kill her.

There was still suspicion in her eyes. "Why didn't you?" She asked. "No one else has spared mercy upon me. Why you?"

But she shifted at the name part. She gazed out into the ocean again, letting her hands slip over her tail, massaging the salt water into her scales. And she glanced back at him. "A name is power. A name is identity. A name that is known can be controlled, revealing that person for who they are. My identity is something that only I can control." Her words were carefully chosen, and she tested each one on her lips, making sure they sounded right.

She paused.

"However, you did not kill me, and showed mercy where most of your kind have not. I shall name myself as Sekhet, but that is all." Her tone had a note of finality. That would be about all he could get out of her.

((Good, so we'll keep them out of costumes of each other then. Works for me! x3 Hah hah, it's small consolation that her last meal was actually his leg.))

Again she kept using that word. Your people. You people. Your kind. She knew NOTHING of his kind...and if she kept saying things like that, he would show her just what his kind was, just what he was about. He would lay upon her a nice lesson that she should definitely learn fast, lest his anger would undo her forever. Now though he would hold his temper as best he could. It would do no good to just lose it right now.

"A name is only power when you let it be. Strength and will can stop you from being controlled." He learned that long ago. It used to be his name could control him, people speaking it might lead to him hearing, to him finding them...to ensuring they didn't have a good time. It could also lead him to fear...to those that said his name that could control him like a rabid dog.

But he was gone now. He was away from all that and no name could control him now. Not anymore.

"Sekhet. Good." He tested the name out as he slowly got to his feet. He stretched his arms out from his sides, letting them stand out straight. He clenched his fist and from that, thick red ropes began to fall from his fists. The strange ropes began to glow after they reached a few feet, and soon they burst into fire. He began to twirl them around him, they left trails in the air as fire crackled from the surface. He had done this before, swinging the ropes around him. Then he relaxed and and let the ropes fall away into the waters, disappearing with a hiss. "I am not a human." He spat the words out as if they were something vile on his tongue. "I am a Savaros. We are so much better than...humans. Perhaps that is why I showed you mercy. Or because you had done nothing wrong. I had challenged to fight after all. There was no need to kill you."

((XD Works for me as well~ And lawl, yes. Small consolation indeed. She's going to need a week of raw fish to get that taste out of her mouth.))

Sekhet did not know much of the humans, not that she would care to. As far as she knew, if it looked like a human and acted like a human, it was a human. Things that elves and faes mattered not to her. Perhaps if she had the desire to learn... but she had no desire of such things. She had a desire to go back home, but that was it. Learning about cultural nuances and the fact that not everything which looked human was human mattered not to her. Not unless it somehow got her back home.

"Strength and will can stop you from being controlled," she said slowly, carefully, "but an identity is something that can be lost, taking your soul with it. I will not risk losing it, anymore than I would risk losing my trident." Her grip tightened around her weapon as she said it. "Death would be a better outcome." In truth, this object and her name were the only things she had left. Even if, to the mermaids, she was no longer a Neptune, an outcast... the name was still hers. Sekhet Neptune.

Hearing her name upon his lips seemed strange, a bit more like a part of her was being violated. But no human had ever spoken her name before. It just made this situation all the more... stranger. Not to mention this man had kissed her. The only thing she could be grateful for now was that he didn't look upon her with lust. A shiver went down her spine at the meer thought. Only once had another merperson looked upon her in that way... And she felt it as a distraction from her job.

But the man, Nexus, was standing up, causing Sekhet to back away again, curling herself, brandishing her trident. She was still waiting for him to attack, believing this truce to be strange and uneasy, as if he was just baiting her, like an actual fish. But then ropes came from his hands, ropes like the one he used to place this water around her. They shimmered, and then burst into flames, making Sekhet raise instinctively, water already starting to wrap around her hands and bare arms. That was, until he tossed the ropes into the waves, where they sizzled and dissolved.

Her gaze became calculating at his words, carefully piecing evidence together. The healing... the ropes, now... and the eye... Yes. She could believe that, at least on the inside, he wasn't human. "Why look like one, then?" She asked, if a bit coldly. But then she realized that there was no way she was really that curious, or cared.

Once again, she gazed at the ocean. "I believe that you are not human," she said, running her hands through her short hair, brushing it out with her fingers. A strangely mermaid gesture, considering that she didn't fit the definition of one.

But she did look up. "I tried to kill you," she said this matter-of-factly. "Of course, I had reason to believe that you wanted me dead. Survival instinct rules the predator." She seemed satisfied with her hair, and let the short locks fall around her face again.

She had to wonder how long this was going to go on before she could return to the ocean. Staying on land like this for so long was a bit draining, and considering that tomorrow... No. She wasn't going to think of tomorrow. Not yet.

((Aw man, you make it sound like his mouth is all disgusting! xDD Like raw fish is any better.)))

He was in no real mood to argue the logistics of everything that was control and fear. It was a little bit too much of a task after such a battle. He would just mentally believe that she was actually wrong and he was right. He did know the control of a name, he had both used it, and been used by it. Though he did agree that death was a good alternative toward being controlled but...

That was all up to her wasn't it?

Well, at least she didn't try to get away from him during his little performance. It hadn't been the smartest move to do, but it was something that he felt was right in the end. He had her though, she really wasn't able to go anywhere was she?  He was almost completely sure she was stuck here, stuck right now like this.

That must have been...a little harsh on her but...he still desired to talk. Why though? He always seemed to like to talk. At times...there was this longing to just talk with people. He didn't know exactly why but...it was just one of those things wasn't it?

"I wasn't given a choice, but probably to blend...who would suspect a human to be something else on the inside? I understand it, though like you, can't say I like it." He would rather be different. He would rather look like something else...still humanoid...but just a little different. That however was a wish for another day, for another time.

Nexus gave a rather brutal laugh as he shook his head. "They don't rule me Sekhet. You should learn to control them before they overtake you. I'd hate to see such a beautiful predator go to waste over such a thing." He looked over to her and winked, or blinked perhaps. It was something that he hadn't done since he had even started fighting her. Even underwater, salt air or painful water splashing in it, he had not blinked. Though from his comment, it was probably a wink.

"You're getting antsy." He noted, seeing that she seemed to want to move. He couldn't blame her...fish out of water and all. "But if I let you go...who would I talk to?" He couldn't see her wanting to stay on her own volition. He began to take up knives from the ground, replacing them in all the hidden spots that he had on his person. "I suppose you don't fancy a little dalliance either. That fight really got me...going."

((XDD To Sekhet, it is. And raw fish would always be the better solution. She'd kiss a lobster before him again.))

The truth was that she was more than just antsy. The wind was starting to prick painfully at her skin, and no amount of saltwater was covering this fact. Patches along her arm had already started to dry. At the least, the sun wasn't out. That was about the most that she could be grateful for. She placed her hand on her arm, rubbing it self-consciously, trying to keep the itching under control, less she start tearing at her skin.

At least the answer about his appearance was... satisfying to her. She nodded curtly, as her hand lifted from her arm to race along her dorsal fin, pulling at the tip. "To blend," she repeated, glancing at the island behind both of them. "I suppose...," though there was still some distaste in her voice, as if she was eating something bitter. Never would she want to blend with these humans, or interact with them for a prolonged period of time.

... Like she was doing now. Fate was a cruel bitch sometimes.

But at his next comment... Oh by the love of the sea did all those creepy feelings come back. From calling her "beautiful", to that... blink. Yes, it was a blink. Her mind refused to process it as anything else but a blink. It was not a... No. No. She turned away with disgust, a shiver going down her spine. "I've survived, haven't I?" Was her curt reply. And that was all she was going to give him.

And by the sea were the creepier feelings getting... creepier. A dalliance? She didn't want to know what his exact definition of that word was, and the fact that the fight had gotten him... going? Why was the creepy fetishist the one that she decided to pick a fight with?

"In case you forgot, I'm a mermaid. I have to be in the water." So saying, she started edging toward the surf, letting it lap over her torso more. Her eyes glared at him. "You can't keep me here forever. I have to return. And you... can talk to the natives. They'll be more willing to listen."

She ignored the suggestive nature of his other comments. That was probably.. the best course of action.

((Pffft, raw fish is never a better solution! Especially if there is mercury in them! Hah! And a lobster would be a terrible thing to kiss with all the pincers and gross buggy exoskeleton and th-Ohhhh I get it.)))

"To blend." He repeated, reaffirming the statement. It was the better of disguises anyway. He at least had not been saddled as a child or a teen, which would have been horrifying to say the least. Something about her last words, how they trailed off and she looked away...made him wonder. There was more to the mermaid than met the eye...and he could only wonder what that might be. Just what was going on in the mind of the woman before him. Was she scared? Did the locals frighten her? Did the island scare her? Something definitely seemed...off.

Her disgust only made him grin all the more, a small chuckle escaping his lips. He did not see anything favourable happening tonight to himself. A shame really, he was really liking the idea of seeing how gentle she could be with those hands...and how rough she could be with that mouth. He just wasn't sure what'd be able to....sink himself into so to speak. "Save for tonight." He corrected with a slightly teasing smirk crossing onto his face.

"Oh I didn't forget. It's hard to forget when you've got a long shark tail." Not to mention she was sitting right before him, drying out with a water collar around her neck. "No...they are a good people. Kind for the most part. I have nothing to offer them but the woes of an old fighter." He barked a laugh as he stood up once more and stretches his arms out. "Sekhet...this has been...nice. Been a long time since I came up against something that could really offer me a fight...something that really could have killed me. If I return here tomorrow...would you perhaps be here again?" There was no hope in his voice, she clearly didn't seem to like him, but the way she spoke she didn't like anyone.

"I figure if I beat you again, I'd get another kiss." He almost gave a charming smile as he walked over to her and suddenly scooped her up. Despite her size and her weight, he seemed to have little trouble. "And if it has to be, I'll let you take another bite out of me but...this time try to keep it down." He strode out toward the water, and with the most gentlest of care he lowered her slowly back into the water. "And if you find my knife down there somewhere, keep it. Something to remember me by, though I doubt you would forget me." With that, the collar around her neck suddenly disappeared and she was released from his grip as he stepped back from her.

((XDD Oh yes... now you get it~ And I forgot about the mercury, though that's mostly a modern thing anyways. And my.. Nexus must be getting enjoyment out of her. His general character didn't seem like the kind that would like anyone, really, though I suppose she's something strange and fascinating and rather unlikeable. He has some... interesting taste to go after the tail though xD))

Blend. That word was making the edges of her being curl and wither. Blend. It was a very curse, that word. It didn't matter how many times she said it, thought it. Tomorrow.. She didn't want to think of it. She had already spent time tonight on land. And tomorrow.. it was the start of her four days into hell.

But for now her focus was on this... person. That was about the only word that she could think of. Being, that might work too. And the fact that her skin was cracking and drying. However, she did snarl and hiss slightly at his last words. "Tonight, only," she said, a threat in her voice. "I'm not bested so easily."

The rest of his words made her roll her eyes, and she clicked her tongue against her teeth, producing a strange, rattling sound as it bounced off the three teeth behind. "At least that one eye hasn't made you blind," she muttered sarcastically, and flicked her tail, spraying sand into the wind. But the words about the humans fell upon deaf ears. Ears that would experience this for herself. That look came about her again as she gazed at the island. Humans... oh, the king could not have cast upon her a better curse. Which is why she was so desperate to break it.

The sound of her name caused her to look up, though her gaze was cold at his words, lips curling into a sneer. "Could have? Not my intention..." Bitter? Perhaps. But in the end, perhaps the last thing she needed was the death of a... being on her. The islanders might find out anyways.

But at his question, she seemed shocked. He wanted to... see her again? For another fight? Something flashed in her eyes before she looked away. "No," was her answer. "I travel. I hunt. I keep moving." The less he knew, the less he suspected, the better.

But when he mentioned that kiss.. she could swear her stomach was trying to empty itself again. However, it was empty, so the most that happened was that she gagged slightly. That gag turned into a full blown snarl as he picked her up, easily, as if she was nothing more than a minnow. "You take some delight in this or something?" She snapped, teeth clicking. "I'll take more than a bite if I ever have the misfortune to cross your path again! Hope you don't need those limbs!"

She was probably serious about those threats as well, and though she knew better than to trash, her tail did slap his side, with a bit of force. Nothing that would cause him to stumble, but at least sting.

Whatever reason he had to be gentle, she had no idea. But the rush of saltwater on her parched skin was invigorating. Her skin seemed to brighten the moment she was placed back in, her eyes wide and glistening as the water rushed over her parched form, her tail giving a few lazy waves in the water. How much she loved the ocean! Her home! With his last words, the collar disappeared, and salt water rushed into her fluttering gills.

She gave him one last look, eying him with loathing, disgust, and that strange fascination she had with creatures of two legs. "You... are the strangest thing I have come across. Pray we don't meet again."

With a powerful flick of her tail, she was gone, her dorsal fin cutting once into the surface, and then sinking to the inky depths.

((So~ I figured after your post we could fast-forward to the next night, where she's forced to walk as a human? Unless you'd rather not continue, which would make me sadface but I understand.))

((Psh! There was always mercury! Damn fish experimenting with mercury and stuff, it's not natural I tells ya! There's a lot to Nexus really, he's veeery complicated, and sometimes a sociopath. His thing is usually to find something he likes and just take hold xD But he's tough at heart and has respect for those like him! Which Sekky kinda is, though he doesn't know the full extent. And I TOTALLY want to time skip to the next night, as if I wouldn't! This is a grand role play for that matter!))

"Seemed pretty easy to me." He sniffed haughtily. Oh he did like to tease and taunt. She was someone he respected though. She wasn't weak like other females he had encountered, but then again he preyed mostly on those that were weaker. This however was different, it had been a challenge, and she had almost killed him. That had been fun. If only she had been more open to a little bit of...inter-species diplomacy. A shark girl was definitely something to brag about after all.

He gave a grin and once more another wink. "Yes, I know you wanted to kill me...but you're not ready for that." It took more than a shark girl with a trident to take down the big dog. He wouldn't lie, he had been scared really. She was dangerous, she had him good a few times but...he wouldn't let her know that he was sure she could have killed him if not for a few lucky breaks on his end.

"A shame. I'm going to be here a while, that would have been fun." Easy come, easy go. He couldn't exactly keep her here after all. He'd have to use too much magic to do that, and by the end of it, she'd end up killing him. It was best to just...let her go then. Strange how that was...but he felt a slight kinship with her. Plus he had lost a lot of blood so...he was perhaps feeling tired. He only wished that he could sleep.

He looked to her as he held her and nodded. "Of course, didn't realize that till now?" He decided not to comment on her next words. It was almost as if she wanted him to fight her again. If only he could make her stay for when he healed and recovered a bit better. He could taunt her, egg her into another fight. It was a hundred times better than trying to get drunk here, or fighting sailors. His face flushed slightly as she slapped his leg with her tail. Did she not remember that it felt good? Probably not, but he'd still equate it with...pleasure. Yeah, she totally wanted to fight him again.

"I've no deity to pray to, but I'll hope that we will. If only just to gloat." He stepped back again and watched her as she suddenly disappeared under water. "Ah, by the Gods that was entertaining. I should see if I can't find one of the native girls to occupy me now." He wondered what the concept of prostitution was like here, in a place supposedly into the idea of free love.


That next night he found himself once more heading out to the beach again. He didn't know why, but he wanted to see what he could find there. He didn't think himself lucky to find himself another shark lady to fight, and after a rather boring day of trying to integrate with the locals he found himself wanting to relieve some stress. He knew better than to kidnap here...this was jungle...this wasn't the urban places he was used to. Places where you could grab someone and take them into a place where their screams would not be heard. It was all...different here. He had to be on some good behaviour. Now that he thought about it, all the times he had ventured out into the wild, he found himself in a fight.

That said a lot didn't it? He found himself a nice quiet spot away from the docks and eased himself into the surf, letting the waves pull away from him before coming back at him. His leg was looking better, but there was definitely a scar, a distinct mouth shape around where it had been bitten. Good reminder really. "Could do with another good fight. Wonder if there are any giant whale mermaids." He mused idly, grinning at the thought of it. Now that would be a fight and a screw wouldn't it?

((Yay, I'm glad you think it's grand! Heh, too bad I can't reply to all of Nexus's other comments. Oh well~ He'll get more of Sekhet's comments anyways. And I do like him a lot~ He just seems soo different from his character catalog description.))

She spent the next day hunting, swimming in the swift currents of the ocean, going as far to the depths as she would allow herself, letting the colder currents embrace her. After a few meals and sleeping in the rocks between the coral, letting the fish swim around the vortexes she created, she felt better. Good. Energized.

Part of her mind refused to acknowledge the affairs of last night. That strange being... Nexus, was his name. The fact that she even still remembered his name was homage to the fact that "ignoring" the situation wasn't doing her much good. It didn't help that he was a being who had kissed her, and probably... wanted more. Oh, did she not want to think about that. It still made her stomach churn.

And yet, all of this served to ignite the pang of loneliness that she tried so hard to forget. The longing to be with her own kind, to have company, to converse in her language again... To go home. Some days, the pain was not so bad. Other days, she could feel it in every fiber of her being. Exiled. The word was just as good as any death sentence. The pain of living without having a place to call home. Tainted by her name.

"Sekhet Neptune," she said to herself as the sun grew long. "Sekhet Neptune." Reaffirming her identity. The only thing she had left. Her name and her trident. A physical and a mental object. Two things that no one could take away from her. If they did... she was nothing. And she would rather die than be nothing.

Orange rays scattered on the broken surface, reminding Sekhet that her time was ticking away, seconds passing as she swam. She couldn't venture away and forget this curse. It was forcing her toward the land, drawing her to the homes of the humans, those that she was forced to be among in minutes.

But she knew how to prepare. As the sun sank, Sekhet went to the shallow waters of the beach, a place concealed in darkness. She swam up the embankment until her belly scrapped sand, her dorsal and tail fin exposed to the night breeze.

The sun was agonizingly slow tonight, and as it sank, she offered one prayer, begging for forgiveness, to the waters of the Tuor ocean. But tonight, as with all the nights before, her prayer was not to be answered.

Her body seized, and something began leaking out of her gills. Pinkish, and translucent. Immediately her clawed hands went to the membrane, pulling at it as it started to fill her gills, closing them, expanding like a bubble, tracing itself around her form. The instinct to fight this was great, to stop this thing from closing her gills, suffocating her. But she forced her hands down, even as she was choking on the very thing that was supposed to give her life. Fighting always made it worse. It made the transformation more painful, it lengthened it. So she became still as the membrane encased her, choked her from the inside out, as it began to press on her tail, making every muscle spasm and seize. It shrank, conforming to every small scrap of skin, encasing her in its strange softness. And then, it began.

Her mouth wrenched open in a silent scream as teeth shrank into her gumline, cutting deep, and the rest fell from her mouth, which she spluttered out before she had a chance to swallow. They drifted, pressed against her neck by the membrane, dangerously close to her jugular. Her back arched and sized, her hands curling as the nails retreated, sinking into her fingers, drawing blood. The webbing shriveled and detached from her fingers, leaving them raw and scarred. Once again her spine twisted, contorting her body as the dorsal fin melted into her back, the skin rippling as it became one with the skin, the cartilage disappearing all together. Perhaps the most painful was the tail. It seized and thrashed, contorting in unnatural ways, and something strained and pulled at the skin. Suddenly she arched, eyes wide in pain as with an unnatural tearing sound, legs ripped away from her tail, coated in a thin layer of blood. Her tail became limp as the skin wound over itself, repairing, and the membrane seized and took a hold of her, forcing her knees up to her chin, coiling that useless tail around her. For a second, she was still. And then, she started struggling, until the waves brought her ashore, a transformed mermaid in a translucent cocoon.

She was still gasping for breath, choking as the membrane was in her sinuses, restricting her movement. Her human, stubby nails scratched uselessly, lips with teeth barely sharp snapping at the membrane stuck to her throat. She tore at it, snapped at it, and finally, she broke the stuff in her mouth. Her eyes bulged as she took in a breath, and twisting her back, the sharp grains of sand made the membrane tear in other places. Like an embryo emerging from a womb, Sekhet was released from the membrane onto the beach, gasping for breath. Waves lapped at her feet, taking blood and skin and teeth away with them as they retreated, but after only a few seconds, she had to pull her feet toward her, away from the ocean that now hurt her.

For a while, all Sekhet could do was lay on the beach, breathing with the lungs that had formed inside of her chest, her tail draped around her naked legs. Gods, the curse. Nothing could torture her like this.

((Yeah, he has done a bit of changing really. He had a fateful encounter role play, and I've been trying to tweak him a little bit. Half evil, half not xDD He's got a more...relaxed attitude than what he was before.))

Nexus couldn't blink. Nexus couldn't stop seeing. It's why he couldn't ever sleep. His eyes would always look, his eyes would always see and he would never be able to avoid that. He would just stare forever, unblinking and all seeing. In the case of tonight, it made him a little bit more....in tune with things. His eyes were scanning the water, always looking and searching for the shark girl he had met last night. He cut through layers of water, removing it in sections so he could see a new depth.

But there was nothing. Not here anyway.

He didn't know why he really cared so much honestly. Perhaps it had just been a very exciting fight, in multiple ways that is. Perhaps because she wasn't human too, that could have been a reason. Nexus had a bad string of luck lately, it seemed that women he encountered as of late weren't as...weak as he imagined them all to be. Too many times did he find himself on the brink of death because of them. THAT would change any man's heart just a little. It both infuriated and intrigued him in the long run.

Picking himself up from the surf he decided to stop feeling so grouchy for the moment. He was Nexus Savaros. Scourge of the wicked and sadist of the stars. And right now he wanted to go for a walk. So, setting himself into motion he headed off down the beach, deciding to try and find anything interesting tonight.

He found that of course. Something in the water, not far from him, something...not normal in the slightest. A creature had brought itself in close to the shore, and he recognized it almost immediately. It was Sekhet! She said she was moving on, the coy little vixen.  Something however was...incredibly wrong at the moment. He stopped walking toward her as he saw stuff...happening to her. A strange membrane forming on her, and what looked to be something of incredibly pain happening to her. Nexus did nothing but watch, something he was good at. This was a good thing for a sadist to watch...someone in so much pain...someone writhing in agony as a change came over them.

Though literally in this sense. It was over soon though, and Nexus was unsure of how to proceed. She probably hadn't enjoyed that very much, but himself? That had been intensely satisfying and perhaps a little arousing at the same time. He decided to approach...somewhat casually at this point. "Well now warrior," He began, his voice slightly full of mirth. "How goes the night then?"

((XD Ahh, that explains it~ Well, I'm sure Sekhet's happy... ah, who am I kidding? She's never happy.))

The thing she hated most, other than gaining a spindly pair of legs, was the draining feeling that overcame her after this transformation. She laid still, breathing hard, her new lungs burning with a want of oxygen. This curse. Oh, how many nights would she have to suffer this transformation until her crimes were repented? Every day she could see the faces of the prince and princess, every time when she slept, their bodies, bleeding and broken, haunted her. The truth was, she could never forgive herself for not saving them. And though she searched for a way to get rid of his curse, never did she ever think it would be broken. The pain she suffered was only a fraction of the pain that the king and queen suffered daily, looking at the empty seats where their son and daughter should be.

And then, she heard footsteps. Immediately Sekhet straightened, lifting the human half that could cooperate, leaning heavily on her tail and trident as her legs just folded underneath her. When the last of the saltwater drained from her eyes, making the skin that they touched on her cheek red and dry, she couldn't believe who she was seeing.

"Gods below!" She spat at his feet, right now wishing she still had teeth to be proud of. "You! Of all my decaying luck...." Here her voice broke into some cussing in her language, none of it pretty. But eventually she had to stop, because her tongue was losing how to pronounce those symbols. Just another wonderful aspect of this curse.

He probably saw everything as well that had happened to her. She turned her attention to her new, human legs, scraping the last of the membrane off of them, and the rest of her body. "I was hoping you were dead," she growled. "My mistake."

Once the last of the membrane was off, she slowly started to stand, though these new limbs were unused to bearing such a weight. She stumbled back to the sand, but never did she let herself appear weak, even as her stomach twisted with the membrane inside of it, even as she kept edging away from the waves. She gripped her tail, and managed to get to her knees. If she was concerned about her lower half now being naked, she didn't show it. The truth was, she didn't feel as if these naked parts of her were really her. She would have to cover up, of course. But for right now, her main concern was standing.

And getting away from Nexus.

((Yeah, she can be such a killjoy! She just needs to have some fun! Which...I don't know if Nexus really knows how to do...and if he does she might not like it. >_>))

Well, this was definitely a lot more interesting than he expected to find. She had grown legs. She had become....it looked like she had become a land dweller. She was on land, and she didn't seem to have her gills, and while she had a tail she had legs now. This changed everything didn't it?

"Powerful mouth on you, but I knew that already." He grinned as he crossed his arms over his chest and carefully observed her. The words were definitely different weren't they? But from the tone of her voice he was almost certain none of those things were really good. Some of them were probably about him too but...well that didn't matter too much.

"Me? Dead? I went looking for something that might try but...all the creatures I met just...didn't add up to snuff." Well actually, if one thought about it they did add up to that. Dead. Heh heh. He still couldn't believe that she thought he would be dead. Smirking he watched her as she stood shakily. She still had the tail, that was certainly interesting wasn't it? His eye moved downward to look at her carefully, taking in her new body. That was...certainly nice wasn't it? As she tried to cover up he grinned and laughed quietly.

"Just relax will you? I suppose I should be nice and cover you." The thread master took a step back and carefully observed her for a moment. This time however it wasn't one of lust, anger, or even hate. It was something different. Like a critical eye. Clapping his hands together he took a deep breath. Letting his hands slowly part, strange golden threads hanging between them. There was a look of pure concentration as more threads began to appear between his hands. They interlaced with each other, and soon he started to have a full piece of clothing begin to appear.

It wasn't long until the glowing golden lines began to dim and he had a dress in his hands. It was a slip on dress with an open slit along both sides for a more adjustable fit. It had a rather open v neck chest, it would cover her modesty but would still giver her a sensual and alluring look. It was for his benefit after all...tailor's discretion. Still it was a very fine piece of clothing. "And here you go. Strong enough to keep together for what you like to do...but soft enough that it'll feel like you're wearing nothing at all." He held out the garment to her, half grinning at her as he did so. "And that's why I am the thread master."

((XDD Yeeeaahh... She probably won't like his idea of fun. And she'll probably be a grouch until she gets to go back home, but such is the nature of being exiled.))

"And I knew you were annoying, but thanks for stating the obvious!" Sekhet snapped back at him, still bearing her lips as if she had her wonderful teeth to be proud of. But this faltered slightly, and she looked away, glaring at the sand hard enough to turn it to glass. Her command on the common tongue, however... it was growing. She hated it. Every second she hated it.

Sekhet still had enough of her vinegar to scoff at him. "Stupid animals," she muttered under her breath, setting her tail about her, waiting for her legs to stop shaking enough that she could stand. And hopefully run. Though she doubted that this man would let her get away with running. And now that she was on land, she got a better look at Nexus, without really wanting it. That strange eye.. the scars that littered his body like shells on the ocean floor... He was a warrior. Perhaps a margin of respect entered into her, but it wasn't enough to upset the balance of underlying hatred she had for this man. Who was looking at her. At least there was the chain mail...

She growled, and curled her tail a bit over herself. As if this was her body to be ashamed of! This wasn't her body! It was some cursed form that she was forced into, to parade around in humiliation, before she was allowed to return to the water. But he appraised her, like meat, if that subtle twitch to his smile was to go by, and she only glowered at him.

"As if I need any covering you have to offer," she spat bitterly, though her eyes went wide as she watched him... make a dress? The object was so absurd to her that she gave a harsh, barking laugh, and finally, stood up on these limbs, even if her knees were still knocking.

"I need none of your things, or threads. I have done this before, without help. I can do it again easily." A step, but she faltered, falling back on the sands on her knees and hands. She cursed, and felt about the beach, until... ah! Kelp! Expertly, as if she had done this before, she tied the kelp around and between her legs, and around her tail, until her bottom half was sufficiently covered. And she stood, shakily, still leaning heavily on her trident for balance.

Her gaze on him did not falter, in either its hate or anger. "You can leave," she hissed. "I need, and ask, nothing from you." She glared at the dress again, and spat in his direction. "Your things are unwanted here."

With that, she tried to take another step, away from him, even if she was still facing him, warily. Afraid that he might try to attack, now that she was weakened. If only she didn't have him hanging around her, this whole night might have gone easier. And now she had four days to look forward to, of trying to avoid him on this miserable little island.

((She might if it wasn't directed at her though right? You never know! Well you might, being as you made her but still.))

"Only because I'm better." She was trying to be defensive wasn't she? But he had learned that wasn't her honest strong point. Her offence was better but even after all that, he was still quite a bit better. It wasn't her fault though, she'd learn in time. He had thousands of years of practise after all, and she couldn't have been more than a couple decades...though looks were deceiving after all.

If there was one thing that Nexus knew how to do, it was make enemies. No one could be sure if he really wanted to make friends in the end, but he seemed to enjoy the company. He seemed to have a desire to be around people. Not a lot of people...they got on his nerves but...there were some that he seemed to want to gravitate toward. Sekhet was one of these people, unfortunately for her.

She was really trying really hard to push him away. She had no love for surface dwellers did she? He had met some xenophobic races before, but not many Mers that acted this way. At least the ones he had met...but he hadn't many mers in THIS world anyway. It could just be it was her though, he had watched her transform into a person, and he couldn't exactly say that would do wonders for a lot of people

What had his old God said? Some people had a story, and one would have to find that story out. Nexus wasn't sure if he wanted to find that out, but...if she kept acting this way he'd probably just...ahem. Best not to go down that road right now.

He rolled his eye in his socket, all the way around it as she rejected his gift. He thought it had been a really nice dress but apparently he was wrong. Then again, what would she know of good taste, she was wearing kelp now! She obviously had no idea did she?

"Right, because I'm good at listening to people." He grinned as he tossed the garment behind him, snapping his fingers to make it simply burst into light and turn to nothingness. "You must have one hell of a story. Transforming into a two legged person...and away from Mers that usually travel in some sort of group or pack...Y'know...we could make a little deal you and I." He stepped forward and put his hands together, cracking the knuckles. "Another fight. If I win, you tell me about yourself...and if I lose...I'll leave you be. I mean, unless you're too tired and scared of course, I completely understand. I could just...take my prize and go." There was a glint in his eye and a tone that spoke about something terrible that might happen.

((XD I guess it depends. She'd love to kill pirates. But, she probably would just... run from everything else. Other than her own kind.))

This man... could not take a hint. He was still standing there, like some lost puppy, waiting for her to.. to what? Come around? He may not be human, but he was a land dweller, still the symbolism of everything she despised. And she would much prefer to deal with this curse of hers alone. It was already shameful that he probably watched her transform into this... pitiful thing. An excuse, a shell of her true nature. A mockery.

Her lips curled into another sneer as he said he was better. What did he know of being better? Did he ever lay his life on the line to serve others but himself? Did he ever vow to die before another? Word games meant nothing to her. It was sheer instinct that helped her to survive, at least for this long. Most merpeople died in exile... not that there were many. She was just lucky that way.

She watched the garment suspiciously, backing up another step as it burst into light, but it was gone. But it was his words that hurt her. A physical ache. A haunted look entered her eyes at every word he said. Transforming into a person... away from her own kind... But then, there was anger. A sheer hatred, a fire that burned through her. She picked up her trident, even if she was weak, even if her legs were shaking. This man would not humiliate her.

A scream tore out of her throat as she caught that glint, and she didn't mince her time on words. She lifted her trident, and charged, her legs shaking and threatening to buckle with every misplaced, wobbly step. She would fight. She was trained to fight. Even if she died trying.

((Man, pirates have such a bad rap with Mers. Why do they care what people above the waters do? Dx))

Nexus could be a patient man. While he did love to have things happen instantly for him, he could always wait. Torture was slow after all, very...very slow if he was doing it. Maybe that's what this was. He'd always been able to do mental torture, so maybe that's what this was. Mentally torturing the mermaid for his own pleasure. Though he didn't really feel anything from this so it couldn't be that.

That would all be figured out later though.

It wasn't going to be a very fair fight he figured. Her pride wouldn't allow her to say no though. That look of hatred and anger though....that was good to see. That would feed her through this. That may even help her to win but...why was she always using that damned trident of hers? Could she not fight any other way? Under the water she had a pretty good offence, with teeth and claws and her tail...he supposed that might changed now.

She charged at him, and the easiest thing in the world for him to do simply let her run by him. It was easy and quick, his feet simply carrying him off to her right side, his hands aiming a slap for the side of the trident. He didn't want her to stab him, and slapping the trident would get her to definitely lose some balance. Plus it would help to get it to go in the other direction, the direction that wasn't into his belly.

((xD It's probably because pirates are selfish and want all the lovely treasure that Mers tend to have? At any rate, I doubt they would take kindly to a race that occasionally likes to drown their crew members.))

She should have expected him to dodge. It was the simplest counter-attack in the book, and yet, he got away with it. And then a hard slap to her trident, which made her knees buckle, falling hard onto the unforgiving sand. Another snarl tore from her throat, her tail thunking uselessly beside her, and she glared at him, coldly.

Even if her legs were shaking, she still stood, balancing her trident lightly. It was her only weapon now. Her teeth were shorter, the replacements gone, washed away by the tide. Her nails, about as good as human nails now, not meant for tearing and shredding. And that useless hunk of flesh and cartilage that her tail had become. If only...

An idea came to her, and she charged again, but this time, she skidded in the sand, feinting to his left side, and spun in a tight circle. Her tail followed her movements, and with any luck, it would wrap around his legs, tripping him up. Or it would just slide uselessly around them. Sekhet prayed that the former would happen, and not the latter. How nice it would be to get rid of this being, or whatever he may be!

((Pfft, pirates can't even get to Mer treasure, it's all underwater and stuff! That's crazy Don't be crazy!))

She was tired, she was weak, and he should have expected how easy this might be. It wasn't a particularly fair fight, but sometimes you had to be very unfair. If he lost this match, he'd lose a source of interest and entertainment. But he couldn't lose. Well he could, but there was only one way that Nexus lost at a fight...and that was to die. If he didn't die, he didn't lose, and would continue to fight.

She wasn't going to like that very much, because he didn't think she'd have the guts to do that.

"Is that all you have? You fight like a bass, flopping around uselessly. A bass that has to use a trident." He was almost sure that no matter how much insulting he did to her, it wouldn't really matter. She wouldn't be able to fight any better would she?

Her next charge was definitely different, and he barely had time to figure out what she was doing. He stood his ground however, even as he felt something weird wrap around his legs. It better not have been the kelp, that always felt weird when it touched your skin. He decided to show that he meant business, and instead of moving and falling for her little trick, he decided to roughly throw his elbow at her. The spin was cute but she was still pretty weak, and he wouldn't need much to throw her off balance again.

((XD Well, pirates and Mers just never get along. I'm sure enough Mers were wearing pearls that they got curious, no?))

His words were infuriating to her, moreso that there was a hint of truth to them. Of course she couldn't fight like this! Her legs weren't used to this weight, and she could barely run on this god-forsaken sand. Every step was making her knees buckle, and even if her will was to fight, her body certainly wasn't cooperating.

This was his territory, and she no longer had an advantage. That came to her in stars of pain that appeared behind her eyes as his elbow found her ribcage. The air came out of her mouth in a ragged gasp as she fell to the sand again, coughing and forcing it back into her lungs.

Her anger was still blazing, and she thrust her trident at his legs again. It was close to her last move, because she couldn't do much else.

((I suppose this is true, I guess for Mers pearls are like...nothing hard to come by. Jerks.))

He probably had picked a bad time to really fight her on land. However she was going to run away, and he hated that. People always ran away. He felt like he should be remembering more people...that there was someone important who ran....but none of them were really important were they? Not to him anyway. This had been a good way though to keep her around. He wasn't one to care about using dirty tactics after all.

She really wasn't good at land fighting. That was kind of sad really. He turned to stand triumphant over her, his arms crossed over his chest. She definitely didn't like land fighting, and for someone who seemed to become a land person...well she would have to learn. If this was a transformation that happened often.

He didn't have much time for contemplation as a tine from a trident sunk itself quickly into his leg. This was his other leg now, and that sort of pissed him off. He was tired of her using this god damn trident of hers. Red vines of power slowly circled around his non-speared leg and he raised it up. With a deafening roar he brought it down upon the flat of the damned weapon, hoping to smash the rock weapon to pieces. Enough was enough.

((XD Yeah, exactly. And Mers do end up seducing pirates off their ships. Not their fault that some pirates are idiotic enough to jump into the ocean and go after something that looks like a woman and drown! So what, the Mers get crap for the pirate's stupidity? Hypocrisy~))

Every limb was quivering, swear was dripping down her face, a sensation that she couldn't help but hate, as if they very water was leaking out of her body! But there was a small satisfaction that rose within her as her trident bit into his leg once more. That was something, wasn't it? She grinned like a demon, twisting her arms, about to sink the trident further...

The red strings, morphing around his leg. Her heart beat wildly, nerves shattered. No! Not her trident! She couldn't!

She yanked the trident out of his leg, away from the power that could destroy it, and covered it with her body, clinging to it desperately as his foot slammed millimeters away from her face. She looked at him, and screeched, even if her chest was heaving. "I give! I GIVE!"

She was a shaking, panting mess, even if her eyes still shown with hatred. She kept a death grip on her trident, holding it close to her slim body, her tail useless around her. She couldn't even beg a muscle to move.

((Heh, sorry, but couldn't have her trident destroyed~ She'd probably die if it did.))

((Yeah but you'd think they'd all want to do then is get to the Mer for some sweet revenge loving or something. I don't know how all the pirates work after all xD))

There might have been a little bit of pain in his leg, but he wasn't really able to tell over all the pleasure that shivered up and down his spine. He could have sworn there were some goosebumps that were forming on his arms. That damn trident was just being a pain in his ass...or at least in his leg. He hoped that he could smash the little thing into the tiniest of bits but...there was that wrenching feeling as she yanked the trident from him.

His foot came down to stamp into the sand, there was a strange sound of glass shattering as it hit the sand. Lots of glass had actually formed under his boot actually, and then became crushed by the weight. He had to break the damn trident, but that hadn't worked out for the best. She however seemed to think that this was the end didn't it? He grinned as he stepped back, well...he limped back a step.

"Well well. How interesting is that?" He didn't actually blame her either...he killed people for his hat. He once broke a man's arm in six different places because he tried to steal his fedora. Slowly Nexus lowered himself down to the sand to hold onto his leg, to stop the blood, and to let his leg start healing. "Take a few minutes...er...take an hour or so to compose yourself. I probably shoulda waited for you to recover from that horribly painful looking transformation."

((XD True. Well, I'm sure that Sekhet just had the luck to get the ones that wanted to kill Mers!))

The ground beside her rumbled as Nexus's foot crashed beside her, shattering glass below his step. Her body shivered unintentionally, every bone in her being exhausted. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she kept her grip on the only solid thing she still had in her life. For a while, she did not move, almost waiting for this man to try another attack.

To her relief, he didn't. He stepped back, holding the blood in his leg. A small sneer pulled at her lips. Even if he could heal himself, she had still drew blood from him. Even if she was weak, even if she gave up... There was still a flash of pride within her. For right now, it's all she had.

She hissed as she raised herself to her knees. "I don't need time!" She spat at him, gripping her trident, sticking the tines in the sand. It gave her a means of support as she stood on knocking knees, spitting to the sand and gulping air. Even so, she narrowed her eyes at him once he mentioned her transformation. She wish she could be surprised that he watched-- but the truth was that she wasn't.

"Of course," Sekhet muttered, glaring at her trident. "Of course you watched." Finally, she gripped her trident, and pulled it away from the sand. Testing the ground with her toes, carefully setting her foot upon the sand, she took a step. Even if her knees buckled, she still walked, getting used to the bearing of her weight.

"It wasn't painful," she muttered, a vain attempt to defend herself. She hated having her dignity bared like this, to nothing more than a stranger. She kicked a bit at the sand with her foot, still glaring at it. Once her gaze lifted, it was cold, carefully crafted. "Now, do you wish to talk or ridicule me some more?"

(((Right because she doesn't have a "Kill humans cause I can" vibe about her, no sir not at all!))

She had surrendered, there would have been no honour in attacking her now. Granted, one of the things he would have done would be to bind her up and take her somewhere to inflict great pain and humiliation on her but...no, she was still a warrior, and he still had some respect for her. Though the trident thing was starting to definitely tip those two scales...he'd let it lie for the time being.

"Oh, right, because you just gave up since you were winning." He rolled his eye and shook his head. He was stubborn, he would admit that, but this girl was something else entirely. Did his brother and sister get this same annoyed feeling from him when he refused to give up? Brrr, this whole thing was like a weird out of body experience.

"That's all I can do sometimes. Is watch." Mournful words. There was sadness to them. He envied her, and all people sometimes. They could stop watching. They could just close their eyes and stop watching. Granted he could look away but...he would still be watching. He would still see something and that would never change. "Looked like it was." He murmured, wondering just what she had to prove to him. Unless this was how she always acted, which he was sure that she did.

Slowly Nexus got to his feet as well. "I actually wish for something different at the moment." He approached her slowly, his posture relaxed and non-threatening. Now....how did people usually go about this again? He looked down at the woman before him, contemplating this, rubbing his chin. He could do this. Slowly his arms came out, and he suddenly embraced her, as best he could from still standing straight up, awkwardly patting her on the back. "People do this I think to console another. A hug right?" He had no idea if Mers had hugs but...this was supposed to help make people feel better.

((Of course not, not at all! Heh, really, I think she wouldn't kill humans willy-nilly. She'd hurt them for hurting her, but killing them would sink her down to their level. But once it comes to self-defense, it's no holds.))

Obviously Sekhet wasn't in a mood for joking. At his comment about her giving up, she glared at him, and her voice was low as she spoke. "Self-preservation can come before honor," she muttered, her voice drifting in the wind. There was something in it as she spoke, something that sounded lost and forgotten. But it came away quickly as she brushed sand out of her hair with nimble fingers, fingers that lacked claws and webbing, hissing. "Not that there was honor in this fight." He had challenge her while she was weak, and gave her an ultimatum: fight now or he would do something unspeakable. Did she really have much of a choice in the matter? No. And she was on land. No mermaid was a great fighter on land. Not unless they had already turned their back on their own people.

Perhaps the way that he spoke intrigued her, the notes in his voice that said that he had watched. But her spine stiffened, and she turned her back on him, attempting to tie the kelp better between her legs. It was going to have to last her at least the night, until she could find a substitute. Her voice was low again, almost barely a whisper. "You could have looked away." Her pride had been wounded by the very fact that he had seen that transformation, the curse that stripped away shreds of her sanity with every passing, that took away what it meant to be part of her kind.

She heard him getting up to his feet, but her back was still turned. She was trying to figure out something to do with her tail, the useless husk that it now was, filled with blood and bone but with no way to control it. After a minute, she settled on slinging the thing over her shoulder, nothing more than a dead carcass. But he was approaching her, and the same suspicion filled her eyes, even if he wasn't threatening.

His arms embraced her, and she stiffened, expecting this on every level possible. What was this man's deal? He seemed to delight in fighting her, making her hurt, took joy in her pain, and now... now he was... trying to console her? It was that word that made her still, eerily so. And then, a dark chuckle choked out of her voice, small hands lightly pushing at his chest, but with no real force behind them.

"I deserve none," she muttered darkly. "I am not a thing to be consoled. I am nothing. You saw it for yourself." Her eyes were downcast.

"I deserve this."

((lol, self defence, suuuuure. I believe you!))

What an interesting night this was turning out to be. She had a lot of deep dark personal problems. He also had a lot of deep dark personal problems, but he wasn't feeling like he should settle them any time soon. No that would be resolved for another time perhaps. A time when he felt like he should air all his deep dark hatreds. He however, had won the fight, and that meant that all his problems would be kept hidden while he listened to someone else for a change.

"Did I not allow surrender? Did I not say that we could not fight? Or imply it at least?" He had done something like that. The detail wasn't particularly important though. "Your pride wouldn't let you." And the fact he may have implied there could be rape involved. Could though. He probably wouldn't have gone through with it...unless she really screamed and fought back.

He gave a small snort as he shook his head. "Nothing interesting to look at. If I'm forced to watch, might as well be something interesting." It was a good enough philosophy for him really. Granted there was always something interesting to look at...but that was usually reserved to urban environments. Out here it was all nature and calmness...such a still place with very little to look at. Watching a shark woman turn into a mostly woman...now that was a spectacle to see.

"Deserve this?" He asked as he looked down at her. She was fighting, but only a small amount. She didn't want this, and at the same time it was something she needed. What the hell had happened to her? What happened to him for that matter. Here he was...hugging someone! Hugging! Consoling someone! When did he ever do that? It felt familiar. Something tugged at the back of his mind for just a moment. Had he done this before? No...no he'd remember this. However, she was a warrior, a warrior with a bad past it seemed. "Well, you deserve the hug. Unless this is hell for ya, then with your self depreciating ways I'd say you'd think you deserve the hug. But ya can't deserve worse than me. That much I can tell ya."

((xD Okay, well, she is kinda messed up... being shoved into exile will do that to someone. And I'm still trying to get a good handle on her persona. So sue me. x.x; ))

His comment about surrendering made no sense to Sekhet. She looked at him as he said it, as if he had suggested that she wasn't actually a merperson, but a person who happened to look like a mer. "Surrendering is for the weak," she repeated, something that sounded strangely like a motto. Perhaps a personal one, but there was an intonation to her tone, as if this was something she had repeated to herself, something that was as one with her as her trident was. "And my pride is all that I have left." Her shoulders stiffened at the words, a dark look entering her eyes. "I don't give in to others so easily."

Something interesting. That was all she had been reduced to, wasn't it? "A sideshow," she hissed, her hands curling into fists. "A freak." She was speaking to herself, every muscle in her body strained. She remembered when she was respected, admired... Those days were gone, weren't they? They had been left behind in the depths, to a kingdom that she could never return to.

Something had changed about Sekhet, even as Nexus still had his arms around her. Her hands were still trying to push on his chest, and her head was shaking, back and forth, back and forth, a broken piece of equipment. "I don't. You're mistaken. I deserve what... happened. But I don't deserve sympathy." Though at what the man said, she snorted. "I see." To an extent, she did. She noticed that he seemed to find joy in pain... Whether it be his own pain or hers. This did put her on edge, but... there was so much to this man. If he delighted in her pain so much, why was he trying to comfort her?

The scrape of a wave against the sand made Sekhet look up, backing away and breaking his grip, but not fast enough. The wave touched her toe, and at least to her credit, Sekhet showed no sign of pain as the skin on the tip of her toe turned back, dead by the touch of the water. She scraped her toe against the sand, and the skin came off, causing a small amount of blood upon the layer.

"I need to move," she said, her voice carefully monotone. "The tide is coming in."

It was painfully obvious by now that her transformation wasn't normal in the slightest.

((Psh, I wouldn't sue you! That'd be terrible! I'd probably not get any more role playing from you and that'd suck!))

"Surrendering is also for the smart. Sometimes it's better to surrender than to die." Unless surrendering would cause you to die as well. Then you might as well go down fighting right? However in this situation, he wouldn't have killed her. No, that would mean his fun would disappear as well, and he'd be stuck having to figure out something else to do until he could get his way onto a ship. Though now that he had found Sekhet, he wasn't sure he wanted to leave any time soon anyway. "This much I could have told you." He rolled his eye again, smirking to himself. Oh yes, he had to literally beat some sense into her, and some information out of her it seemed.

"Now you're just putting words into my mouth. There are so much better things that could put there." He grinned impishly, more to himself than anyone. She was in no mood for dalliances of that kind it seemed. She seemed more interested in wallowing in self pity. Now don't get him wrong, there were night when he sat around an empty fire and contemplated his place in the world, and found himself wishing he could let all this anger and darkness out so he could have a normal life...but she was taking self hatred and brooding to a whole new level.

It was almost refreshing.

"I think it's time for you to tell me that story about yourself." He told her with a small nod of his head. He really wanted to know more about...why she had turned into a bipedal creature, and what made her think she deserved this. Sometimes changed though, and his eye followed hers down to the water, to her toe as it was assaulted with the sea water. Alright. He'd seen a lot of things, but he'd never seen someone's skin become...black and fall off like that. Though watching her scrape the dead skin and seeing the blood made his eye twinkle almost.

"Yeah, seems like a good idea." With very little effort, he suddenly was at her again, scooping her up into his arms. He was careful of course not to get his face poked with her trident, and to let her cradle it like a baby at least. "Come along then Sekhet." As if she would have much choice. He bounded up away from the water, until they were near where jungle met sand. He didn't want to take her away from her world after all, but it was clear that she couldn't spend that much time near it. "I'll get us a nice...light going." A fire would do nothing for her, she'd probably resent the damn thing like she resented most things from the surface world it seemed. He set her down on the sand before he knelt and began to dig a small pit. Nothing too extravagant, but he filled the pit with strange white and gold strings that fell from his fingers like web from a spider. Within moments there was light, but no fire being exuded from the pit. It would be well than enough for her to see their surroundings, but not enough to attract much attention from anything.

"Now." He said as he sat back and gestured for her to take a seat. "You have the choice. You can regale me with tales of Sekhet, shark woman of Yoreiq who sometimes becomes a person...or you can hear about my life, Nexus Savaros, the thread master...and surface dweller." He added the last part on, knowing it would probably annoy her and deter. "Either way, I'll be hearing your story, but you can choose who gets to go first."

((XD Exactly!))

Sekhet mulled around the statement about surrendering, thinking it over. She wasn't stupid, and her training had taught her this much. "It can be better," she said, "if the party you're surrendering to grants you mercy. Sometimes, however, the opposing party is not one that you would give your life to. Sometimes surrendering can be worse than death, or the punishments they force you to endure on the condition of surrendering." She looked at him as she said this, straight in that strange eye of his. She didn't think that surrendering to him was a good idea, at all. Not to someone who had a pupil in the shape of a noose.

And yet even if she should have been expecting it, what he was implying with his mouth... still made her shudder. She looked away, and tried to hide her disgust by becoming fascinated with the sand instead. "You would do some good into finding more... human mouths." That was about as delicately as she would put it... and something that wouldn't exactly give her nightmares. Not many, at least. ... Nothing that she couldn't handle. ... And staying up an entire evening was quite a feasible option.

When he mention the story, she simply looked resigned. "It was part of the fight...," she mumbled. Not that any part of her looked happy about this. She was still glaring sullenly up at him, through her eyelashes, holding her tail and her trident as if she was on a death march.

And then the damn ocean had to come in. At least she didn't have this busted, bleeding toe in the water, then she'd have to worry about sharks. ... Though one could argue that sharks had more to worry from her, or that this Nexus was worse than any shark that she could have hoped to entangle with. At least sharks didn't talk. Or try to come on to her.

A yelp escaped her once she found herself picked up again, and she glared at Nexus. "Just because the ocean doesn't agree with me doesn't mean I can't walk!" She snarled, but she seemed resigned to this part of her fate. Fine, let him carry her around like some rag doll.  It's not like he could keep this up forever!  She glared at him and crossed her arms as best she could while still keeping a grip on her trident. "As if I have a choice," she muttered, and once he set her down on the sand she quickly scrunched herself up, hugging her knees to her chest and arranging her tail around her. Sekhet was still uneasy, glancing at the darkness of the forest. Ocean beasts, she could handle. Land beasts... not that much.

Her eyes widened again at the display of his strings, and she was grateful for the lack of a fire. Something like that wouldn't draw much attention, even if she was still rather uneasy. But once he asked, she sighed, and relaxed her posture a bit, letting her knees lay on the sand. "Other than being a dweller upon the surface and spitting webs from your hands and torturing grounded mermaids?" She asked, snorting. "I can only wonder what else there is to say about you..."

In other words, she was going to hold off on telling him as long as possible. Less connection to surface dwellers, the better.

It was best to drop it, Nexus found. They were going to end up arguing a whole lot of semantics at this point, and Nexus didn't particularly feel in the mood for such a philosophical topic. He would have preferred more fighting but the girl wasn't in much mood for that. She was lucky that she was such a fighter though, she had an intense amount of spirit, and it earned her quite a bit of respect with the strange man from the strange world.

A laugh escaped his lips. "Not as much fun, or interesting. I like to sample everything in life at least once." Granted she was a lot less...dangerous in this form...which was a pity. He liked the extremely dangerous things in life...but then at the same time, she had several rows of teeth before, and he wasn't particularly in the mood for reaching down her throat to retrieve his...personal property.

That would not have looked good to anybody, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to reattach it properly. That would probably make him kill her...well, it would definitely make him kill her. On principal mostly.

"You're not exactly in any sort of position to argue, so just be thankful I'm not taking you for a swim." As appealing as it sounded to go for a little dip, he was pretty sure there wouldn't be any more of these shark mers near by, and he was almost certain she'd up running as far away as possible to escape him. He almost suspected it was his fault that people ran from him, but htat was crazy. "That's right, you don't." He replied pleasantly, having caught it with his rather sharp sense of hearing. She was rather amusing to him, but what would happen when that novelty wore off? One had to wonder...and one had to keep that out of their mind at all costs.

"First of all, if I was torturing you, then you'd know it. And their not webs their..." Well, they could be webs...but they were just...strings...like...webs. "Complex." He finished with that, shrugging his shoulders as he lay back somewhat, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I was human once," Nexus started, his eyes drifting up to look at the stars above them. He was so far away from home...none of these looked like his stars. They were all different...very foreign and alien to him. "I didn't know it, but I wouldn't be for very long. I grew up in a small place, normal for the most part. Didn't have any weird eyes, pain was pain for me...probably 'cause I was human. I accidentally killed a kid though, or what I thought was a kid. It was actually an undead necromancer...ah...that's a different story. Anyway. The kid was a trap, his destiny twisted by a Goddess on high. She brought him to me, used him as a trap so that I would hone my skills against him...and eventually revealed that I was nothing but a puppet." He spat the last words out as they tasted vile in his mouth, a poison on his tongue that he would not tolerate.

"She tricked me of course, she told me to atone I would have to work for her, as an Agent of Justice. She burned away my humanity, and left me as a Savaros, her own personal Angel of Divine Punishment. Along with two others, we became kin, she was our puppet mother, and we were her puppet children." He kept his eye locked on the sky, not bothering to look at the young woman before him, but there was a rage on his face. An expression of hatred and loathing that was all too hard to hide. "We grew strong...and eventually we learned about...a way to escape. To get off the land that we were in...and to new ones far away, out of her reach. We cut the cords that bound us, hoping to strangle her with them...but soon just ran...we were weak back then. She controlled us with no...care, no thought, no kindness. She turned us into freaks, into beings that would torture and kill at her command." His eye slowly rolled down to look at her, a slightly sickened smile on his face. "She broke us little dolls, and never bothered to try to fix us."

((Hey there! I caught the flu xD And it hated me.))

One day, she would be able to leave Nexus and let him have at his own fetishes without her having to bear witness. The idea of even sampling was enough to almost make her lose her lunch. But sheer desperation kept it inside her stomach. Not to mention she had no money (yet) to grab any food with... having to use human currency. Oh, how she hated it. But for now, she simply bristled at his comment and drew further away from him.

The mention of a swim made her growl a bit, and she looked back out to the ocean, the very thing that now betrayed her. If he had... it would be a quick death, that she was certain. But not a death that she wanted. Death was not something that she wanted. As for his other comment, she just scoffed. There wasn't much of a bother in replying to it.

"So... they aren't webs?" She asked, cautiously, peering at the glowing strings. She drew closer to the pit, and peered into it, before laying back on her spot. "Oh... kay." So he didn't really know what to call them. That was fine.

It was his story that made her actually look up, watching him with a gaze that was close to unblinking as any creature of this earth would allow. He had started out as a human... but he was tricked. By a... necromancer. Her eyebrows furrowed at the word-- she had little experience with mages outside her own-- but at least she could gather enough from word meanings to understand what it was. And damn her! She felt the shock through her system, the way her eyes widen and she drew closer as he said he became an instrument to a Goddess, an angel of a cruel twist of fate. A puppet. "You were used," she spoke softly, but not an accusation. She of all creatures had no right to accuse.

His story was fascinating. He was truly not a creature of this world, something that was used. And his hate... she could taste it on her tongue, something vile and powerful. She watched the expression on his face, the anger, how he looked at the stars of a sky that wasn't his. But he escaped it... to an extent. She met his gaze, and nodded, in understanding, or as much as she could.

"You may be broken... but you're not a puppet. Not to her anymore." Slowly, Sekhet stretched her human legs out, running her hands softly over her calves. It was a few minutes before she spoke.

"I was never like this... months ago. When I was born, I had a fate. That fate was sealed for me. I was nobility, I was honor. I was what kept law in my kingdom. I was a knight, of the most powerful standing. A Neptune, descendants of the warrior god, so the legend went. I trained with a trident the moment I knew how to grip one, I fought every enemy I could come across, all to protect the royalty, the light of our kingdom, the King and Queen, and their five descendants..."

She rested her head on her knees, her gaze drifting sideways to the ocean, to look at the lapping waves. "I trained in magic, I trained in combat, in hunting, anything and everything, in preparation for serving my life to the order in my kingdom, the highest honor any merperson could want. I beat every one of my competitors, and on the day I turned twenty, I fought and defeated twenty of my own kind to become a knight, fought them one after the other. No one could match my ferocity. I thought I was invincible, immortal even, that Neptune himself guided my hand in battle... Oh, how naviety makes fools of us all."

She was silent for a while again, and when she spoke, her voice was cold, distant. "We wanted nothing to do with the human kingdoms. We made that clear. We kept the pirates and merchants away and asked for nothing, wanted nothing... but it wasn't good enough. They came one day, with weaponry that we had no way to counter. I was given only one task, to protect the prince and princesses, for only the king and queen would entrust me with their children. So I took them, but by then it was far too late. The pirates were upon us, and their spear... it went through my shoulder, pinned me to the bottom below. I struggled to get out, and I did so... only to watch the prince before me die, his body speared by the same weapon, and the princess, gone from my sight. I held his body as I looked for hers... and I found it. Broken and beaten.

"I was brought before the king and queen, brought before my parents, my kingdom... and I was exiled. And to mark my humiliation, my failure, I have been cursed by the king for taking away his children. I must walk like a human after every full moon for four days, and the touch of salt water will kill me if I try to escape this fate too early. I am forced to be among humans, with the shell of who I used to be to drag before me."

((It's okay poppet, you're back now and stronger than ever! Right? Right!)))

She was an odd duck, he would give her that. An odd...shark duck. He couldn't say he quite understood her repulsion toward such a thing as sex. Probably wasn't something she had ever done, which made it all the more...sweet. Whether intentional or not, he was at least starting to get past her defences, and soon he'd wear her down just a little bit. She had literally vomited from the kiss before, and that was just odd and a half.

He was better than a mer though, so he couldn't see why she detested the idea. He'd have to bring that up later, get a bit deeper into her head before he could get any deeper into her. Heh. That was pretty witty.

"Just accept it." He chided gently, shaking his head. He didn't really...know what to call them exactly, but they weren't webs! If they were, then they'd be sticky and he'd have caught her in them and would be doing terrible things to her. Definitely not webs. He wasn't a spider after all.

It was no surprise that Nexus had baggage, and why he was perhaps the way he was. He wasn't necessarily evil, he was just overcome a lot by rage and hate, by a strong feeling of disgust for himself and for others. It might be why he fought so much, and why he enjoyed it. It was who he was, what he had become. She had wanted to use his hate and rage to her advantage, his unending strength and unbreakable will in the pursuit of law, justice, and order. The only problem was she had no idea how to keep him under control, how to reign him in when the time came.

"Heh, if only that were true. Even now she dictates my actions occasionally." Not evil by design, he kept telling himself. He did these things as a protest. He was forced to do the right honourable and just thing all the time, to punish those that were wicked and save the innocent. Now he punished the innocent and joined the ranks of the wicked. It was all in defiance though, nothing more. Each side of the fence offered him the same amount of satisfaction. Torturing a young woman because he could was the same to him as torturing a man who had brutally attacked another person. All a paradox wrapped into one area.

She finally spoke up again, deciding it seemed to share her story, and Nexus had to sit up to watch her better. He had learned a long time ago, that just because he could see a person from any direction, didn't exclude him from actually facing them. Some found it rude, despite still giving them his full attention. It must have been a facing issue he had figured.

Some things of her story he had no clue about. Like who Neptune was. It wasn't a name he had heard in his travels of the land either, but then again this was the first Mer he had really gotten to talk to. They usually were underwater and such...very hard for a man to really get to, especially one who favoured ground close quarters combat. She had such a story didn't she? He was amazed by how similar their origins sort of were. Okay maybe not the most similar...but it did strike certain chords with Nexus. She was a knight by choice, he was a knight by force. Two very big differences, but still...they weren't that far away from each other.

He was confused by the ending though. How strange that had been. He kept quiet as he let it go through his mind, her story ended and he just...stared. "I'm not the smartest person in the world. I let my emotions get the better of me. I don't pretend to be a wise man or a holy person...but you're punishing yourself just as much for something out of your control." He said finally as he looked her straight in the...eyes. As best he could. "They punished you for something you couldn't control, and then ever since that day have been punishing yourself even more than you ever could." Granted he had the same sort of problem, to some degree but...hers was pretty obvious.

((XD Right~!))

Sex had never really been on Sekhet's mind, especially now. Before, when she was among her kind... Perhaps she had entertained such thoughts, and always found it interesting when the mermen would sometimes look upon her with desire. But such things distracted her from her training. She had never tried to pursue a relationship with any of those men, or even her fellow knights. And now... to have a surface dweller interested in her...

It filled her with disgust. She spoiled her chances with her own kind. And now, now... it was him. Not that she should expect any less. She was spoiled goods now. No one wanted her, except for strange men with eccentric tastes.

And this was a strange man, if he could be called as such. She watched him again, studying him closely. He wasn't from this realm. He was controlled, or used to be controlled, by a goddess. Perhaps not the ones that she was familiar with, but a goddess none-the-less. He was an instrument that tried to defy his master's will, and was hurt for it. Sekhet smiled to herself. 'Fate always finds you in the end.'

"Her control should be weak," she said softly, digging her toes into the sands. "You're not in her world." It was all that she could think of to say, trying to grasp at a situation that she could barely understand. But it made sense to her. If he was in one world and she was in another, even as a goddess... Then she wouldn't know what he was doing.

But it was what he said, looking at her, that made something blaze inside of her. It was hatred, hatred at herself, that every word he spoke was false. She glared at him, setting her shoulders, lips bared slightly over her teeth in a feral snarl.

"You don't get it," she hissed, her voice starting to climb. "You don't get it."

She finally stood, glaring down at him, a slight tremor in her shoulders. "It was in my control! My duty was to save them, and I failed! Two members of the royal house are dead because of me!"

Her grip on the trident was white-knuckled, and she was screaming without even realizing it. "I was weak! I was stupid! That was why I was punished! That was why I was cursed! The blood of the innocent is on my hands, the only task I was given my whole life, and I FAILED!"

Something gave inside of her when she said it, and she was trembling, her rage just below her skin. And she dropped her gaze, glaring at the sand, and watched the shoreline.

((Good!))

He wondered just how she would do if she got laid. If there was one thing he knew, he usually felt better after a romp in the sack, and she'd do well to have some tension released. She wasn't much of a fighter really, and that was also another way to get rid of tension and anger. A pity, both were fun, and both were something he particularly wanted to have. It wasn't like he was asking for much, at least in his mind.

He did believe that he had a very interesting tale to tell, and he actually was rather pleased by the fact that she seemed to even believe him. Lots of people laughed at him for that...lots of people lost their teeth for that. But she didn't seem to accuse him of that. She seemed to be sincere in her belief. That was kind of nice actually...it had been a little while since he had someone actually believe his stories.

"It's ingrained. I can always hear it in the back of my head." He told her with a shrug. "Always there. Punish the wicked. Bring justice to the unjust. Destroy injustice where you find it. Burn the sins away." He made a face of distaste and displeasure at that very thought. His idea of breaking away from it was to do everything opposite and to become the big bad angry evil.

It was working quite well.

Then he had to go and say something that completely killed the mood. He saw it first before he heard it with her. She looked at him with venom and anger, with fire in her eyes, and he couldn't help but let a bit of surprise cross his face. Alright, so this was a very touchy subject wasn't it? Of course he didn't get it, he could only look at it from his perspective.

But it seemed that perspective wasn't shared. Nexus rather liked it when she got angry. There was always something about a woman filled with righteous fury. Whether it was for him to get away from her children, or because he had irked her on, there was something primal and sexual about it. It was one of those things no doubt that dated way way back in the line of his people no doubt. Slowly Nexus got himself onto his feet. "What you're doing right now, is telling a guy who used to deal out justice for a few thousand years about what punishment is, what is weak and what is right and wrong." It was funny. She wasn't one who deserved such a thing. Yeah she was kind of weak though, but when something that isn't part of your world, your element invades, you do the best you can.

"But fine. You're weak. You're weak and pathetic. You were attacked by invaders with weapons stronger than you can imagine and you failed. Really weak." Sarcasm though, that's all he spoke, and it was quite obvious for that matter. "But you know." He perked up instantly. "If you want someone to punish you more, I'm right here." He grinned wickedly at her, one eyebrow...the only visible one, raised in suggestion at her. She really didn't seem to like him and his...sexuality, which was fine by him.

It'd make the screams all the sweeter if he partook.

"Y'know, if this was the good old days, I'd just take you to ol' Vec and he'd sort you out." The perverted expression was gone, but he didn't sit down, not yet. He still wasn't sure if she was going to attack him or not. He did wonder if he'd be able to help her. How hard could it be though?

((So you may feel like the thing Sekhet reveals is a bit of a let-down... sorry about that in advance!))

Perhaps it was naive of Sekhet to even believe Nexus's story. But... it made sense. To an extent. He had powers that were... strange. He had a strange eye. He certainly didn't seem to fit the mold of every other surface dweller she had met. And there seemed to be truth to his words... a weight that she could detect. She had no reason to believe that it wasn't the truth anyways. And if so, it was a grand lie then. A lie that she would prefer to believe rather than the truth. The truth was painful, and it was ugly.

It was strange to admit her story to a stranger. She felt... exposed. Baring something that she had let fester to her heart. Her weakness. The story of why she was here. It wasn't a good feeling-- it wasn't like she had shrugged off this burden by telling it. It was more like the burden was more pertinent. The exile, more explicit. She was stuck confessing her sins to a stranger. She was truly an outcast, and nothing in this heaven and earth was going to change that. This was only making that fact more prevalent, something that sank below her skin and would tug at her until she tore herself apart.

When he mentioned the voice, Sekhet just peered at him. "Ignore it," was her simple solution. "She can't have that much control over you..." That part still didn't make any sense to her. But there were many parts of this entire situation that made no sense to her. But if he didn't want to be controlled.. wasn't even knowing that there was a voice meant that he was failing at that task? Or fate is simply a cruel bitch that will beat you until you're broken.

The conversation took a downturn. All of the images that haunted her in her sleep.. it was becoming her waking nightmare. She couldn't fight them back now; the lifeless eyes, the curling fumes of blood in the water... it was there. And it was real. She couldn't take it back. And every word he said... it only made her angrier. She struggled with her fate, fought it and let it take her over. Shackles that were tied to her wrists, ones that she couldn't break, letting them sink her. And it was her burden. Every word that Nexus told her was a lie, and her gaze only hardened into ice as he stood.

"I'm not telling you what I think all of it should be!" She snapped, her teeth even clicking. She couldn't fight the vile black thing inside of her. It was rising in her, choking her, making every word that Nexus said to her an attack. "I deserve this. I let them die! They were innocent! They were loved! It didn't matter what I did! They died, because of me!" Her voice was hoarse, as if every word clawed its way out of her throat, and her tongue only ignited them with the anger at herself.

She knew that his words weren't honest, and her eyes narrowed. "It was weak. There was a way to defeat them, had to be a way... and it didn't work! Whatever I should have done, I didn't do it!" But at what he said, the way he said it... he wanted to punish her. A snarl tore from her throat as she backed up a step, holding her trident protectively in front of her.

That thing inside of her was fighting, struggling... she snarled, and shoved her trident in the sand with violence, as if she was stabbing something, her eyes wide.

"You weren't there!" She screamed at him, as if he was the personification of everything that she had lost. "You didn't see the light leave his eyes! You weren't holding the prince's body as he looked up at you, you, as if you were the only god damn thing that he ever wanted! You didn't hold him! You didn't feel his heart beat in your hands!"

She didn't even realize that her cheeks were burning, that her chest was heaving, that she was leaning into her trident until the tines disappeared into the sand, that her voice was choked.

"You didn't hope, pray that his sister would be alive! You didn't find her body, just as broken, just as battered and torn! You didn't feel like you failed him, the man you watched from afar, the man that only looked at you in death!"

She shuddered, and glared at him.

"He's the only one who should punish me. Not you. Never you."

((Damn, I thought it was going to be that she was totally into him Dx))

He would probably never completely figure this girl out. She had a lot of baggage and a lot of problems. Normally he liked that, people like her were always very fun to harass and torture. He just...didn't have that in him right now. He could count on one hand the amount of...creatures he had felt some form of connection to, and he supposed she might have been added to the list. Now she was his thumb. That made him chuckle inwardly, amused by that thought.

She made it sound so simple. Just ignore it. Granted they seemed to be really trying to simplify their problems. Just ignore the voice you listened to for more than a thousand years. Just accept that you couldn't have saved the prince and princess. All of it was so simple, and yet both of them were a little bit too complex for that sort of thing.

There was that fire again. He knew that fire well, it kept him alive for most of his life. That hatred and anger that would burn away all who got in his way. Ah yes, the fire was a good fire, and he was glad to see it burning so strong in her. She kept saying how she could have fought them, how she could have prevented all of it. She was foolish and naive, and he was enjoying that fact actually. Maybe not as much as he might have, but he still was enjoying it a little bit.

Then came some pretty heavy truth. The prince had wanted her, and she obviously had wanted him. How very interesting indeed. "No. Never me." Nexus said finally as he slowly lowered himself down. "Because you're torturing yourself far more than I or your prince could ever do it seems." She was haunted by him, she was tortured by him, and there was nothing that Nexus could possibly do to her that would ever match it. It was disappointing, and slightly relieving for some odd reason.

"I wasn't always Nexus." He started, his eye looking up to her. "I used to be Sayarus. I used to have a mother and a father, and I even had a little house in a forest. The forest was bright that day. Very bright. I could see everything within it as I hunted. The bowstring was loose at first, the quiver on my back heavy. There, through the streams of light was a boy. A noble. I thought at first that he didn't understand our lives, how we had to hunt and survive by the skin of our teeth. I was sweating as I raised the arrow. I was so angry. Here he was just dancing and singing as he walked, not a care in the world, while I had to hunt for anything so that my family could eat. The arrow was the fast, the boy didn't even see it, he went down quickly. I left for my village...but I had no regret. No shame. No guilt. I had killed, and I didn't care." Nexus' eye had casually moved away from, her looking to the nearby forest as he talked.

"The boy wasn't a noble. He was a pawn, an undead creature that kept resurrecting himself so that I could murder him over and over again. When he finally spoke to me, after....it must have been the four hundredth time I killed him, he spoke of how he had seen my darkness and evil that first day, and how he wanted to help me unleash it." His eye slowly rotated back toward her. "I remember every kill I've made in detail. Innocent and sinful, I remember each kill. Every life I took, I remember it perfectly."

((xD Pfft, c'mon! They've only known each-other for a day! And between Nexus still threatening rape and torture... Well, that's not exactly the way to a girl's heart.))

Her problems weren't ones that could be solved. It was another paradox that she had locked herself into-- she could be released from her exile... but she couldn't accept that she couldn't save the prince and princess. She was innocent and guilty, all wrapped up in this packed, tied neatly with a curse. She waged war with herself, and lost, every day.

She kept the hatred as a way to survive, but there were days where she didn't know what she was supposed to be hating. The surface dwellers, that was always there... But who deserved the hate in her kingdom? And how much? Herself, for being so weak? Her parents, for watching her be exiled and saying not a word in her defense? The king, who's grief and rage hurt her in more ways than he could have predicted? The prince, for tearing the last of her heart to shreds?

That simmering hatred was still in her eyes as Nexus sat, and she said nothing, digging the tines of her trident further and further into the sand until they disappeared. His words struck a nerve in her, but she still remained silent, chewing on her lip. She punished herself, more than anyone else could... "No one can," she repeated.

Nexus started speaking, and for a while Sekhet didn't want to listen. She didn't want Nexus near her. He knew too much about her, and that was dangerous. She wanted him gone, away, to pretend that the evening hadn't happened. But hr was talking about death. About the anger and evil in his own heart. So she looked up, and while she was disturbed at what he said, she knew that running was the worst idea.

"You killed him," she spoke slowly, "because you were jealous. And now.. you remember each one." She paused. "Is that your curse then? You see them, every day, you see all the ones whose lives you've ended?"

Sekhet shifted, and glared at the sea. "How can that be anything like me, Nexus? I didn't let them die because I wanted it! I...," She snarled something, and yanked her trident out of the sand.

"I'm tired. And that's it. I'm tired of discussing this. I'm tired of this night, this curse. And I know none of it is going to go away."