Chapter 8.
'It was definitely a good thing that I didn't try to leave so quickly or make a desperate break for it the moment I tasted freedom,' I thought to myself, a wave of relief washing over me as I watched the mermaid's silhouette zip through the water.
If I had tried to run, she would have caught me before I could even cover ten yards, likely dragging me back to that bone-filled cave to reconsider her stance on eating me.
However, that sense of relief was rapidly shifting into a burning frustration because, despite my best efforts to use my new tail, I was really starting to get left behind in her wake.
'Just how powerful is this woman actually?!' I screamed in my mind, my lungs burning even under the water as I pushed my speed to the absolute brink of what my new muscles could handle.
No matter how much I strained and how hard I tried to mimic her streamlined movements, the distance between us only continued to grow until she was nothing more than a faint pink speck in the vast blue expanse ahead of me.
All of a sudden, a massive group of vibrant, colorful fishes swam out from behind a large coral reef, surrounding me in a swirling vortex of scales and fins that instantly blinded me.
"Shit!" I cursed out loud, the bubbles of my frustration rising toward the surface as I lost sight of everything.
Without any other choice, I tried to stop my forward momentum to avoid a collision, only there was one glaring problem, I didn't actually know how to brake in this body!
My tail stopped its frantic paddling as I commanded it to, but rather than stopping outright like a car hitting the brakes, the physics of the water took over and my body jerked violently to the right.
BAM!
I slammed into a massive patch of jagged coral with a dull thud that sent a jolt of pain through my side and shoulder.
My entire body ached from the impact, and I pressed a hand to my forehead, feeling clearly disoriented while my eyes slowly struggled to regain some bit of clarity amidst the floating bubbles.
"Umm... where the hell am I?" I muttered under my breath once the world stopped spinning, realizing with a sinking feeling that I didn't recognize my surroundings at all.
I had been so caught up with the frantic task of trying to catch up with her that I hadn't even paid a single bit of attention to where I was going or what landmarks I was passing.
"Wait... am I actually lost?" My eyes widened as the reality of being alone in the deep ocean started to set in.
But as I looked around more carefully, I realized something that made my heart beat with happiness.
The wicked woman was absolutely nowhere in sight.
'No... what if she's just hiding nearby in the shadows, waiting to see exactly what I'd do the moment I thought I was free?' I questioned, my paranoia keeping me from feeling any more joy at my newfound solitude.
'I don't think it's possible she would've just forgotten to keep my slow pace in mind back then, could she?' I thought to myself, but the more I turned it over in my head, the less sure I was about which answer was correct.
"Damnit! They got away again..."
"Artria, it's alright, there's no need to get so frustrated over a single hunt."
"But Gerin, we need this! How are we supposed to prove ourselves if we can't even catch a few simple fish?"
Just then, I heard something I never thought I'd be able to hear in the middle of the open ocean, voices besides that of that sea witch.
"Is there someone else here?" I raised a brow in confusion and swam upward a few feet to get a better vantage point that wasn't obstructed by the thick coral branches in the area.
That was when I saw two people in the distance, or to be more accurate, two merfolk who looked significantly different from my shark-tailed mistress.
Unlike her powerful and intimidating appearance, this duo had true, classic fish tails that shimmered with a soft blue light, looking much more like the traditional mermaids described in the stories.
"What are those two even up to out here?" I whispered beneath my breath, keeping myself partially hidden behind the reef.
The two individuals were a girl and a guy respectively, both possessing beautiful blue hair that drifted like silk in the current.
The girl had a look of deep frustration on her face as she gestured wildly, her blue tail twitching with annoyance, while the guy next to her seemed much calmer, though he was about one half of her size.
Both of them looked quite young, perhaps even younger than I was in my human life, appearing as if they had only just recently stepped into the world of adulthood and were struggling to find their footing.
Taking a closer look at what they were doing, I noticed that their attention was focused on a massive school of fish that resembled a large school of tuna swimming about in the clear water far above them.
From the looks of the scene, they seemed to be trying to hunt the school, but based on their disgruntled expressions and the way the fish were easily darting away, they were failing quite miserably.
Once more I glanced around my immediate vicinity, searching for any sign of my mistress, yet I still felt that strange, prickling sensation on the back of my neck telling me that she knew exactly where I was.
Or perhaps it was just my paranoia again?
'Don't tell me she's actually hiding somewhere nearby...' I felt a wave of annoyance just thinking about it, and yet I couldn't quite understand why a royal-blooded shark mermaid would do such a thing.
If she was secretly watching me, I didn't know the reason, but I had to assume everything she did had a purpose behind it.
'Come to think of it, she did leave me behind not too long ago, and then I magically find these two struggling right in my path; does that mean she actually wants me to help them?' I pondered, trying to connect the dots of her unpredictable behavior.
'Well, it's certainly worth a try, and it's better than sitting here doing nothing.' I thought to myself.
With that half-baked plan in mind, I took a deep breath of the water and decided to slowly approach the duo.