CHAPTER 10
Her heart raced first, then her legs. She raced so fast to him it was a miracle the biscuits made it at all.
She raced so hard that he actually looked startled.
His face barely showed it, but he slunk down into the ocean and backed up a dozen or so feet, to where only his nose and higher were above the water.
“Oh,” she said, slowing herself and suddenly feeling quite sheepish. “Sorry, sorry. I was just happy to see you.”
Well, he hadn’t run away though, right? That was a good sign.
“I saw your shell,” she said, approaching slowly like when she didn’t want to startle a fish before spearing it. She regretted the mental image the second it came to her and felt an extraordinary amount of guilt, though she wasn’t quite sure why. She had no intension of hurting him.
He just watched her. She came to the rocky shoreline to the side of the dock. There were a few boulders here that were easy enough to scramble over to get to the water. She hoped he wouldn’t find that too intimidating.
He didn’t back away any farther though so she supposed he didn’t.
“It was very beautiful. A beautiful…shell.” His eyes were so keenly focused on her, their weight enormous, so much so that she looked away, already feeling her cheeks blushing once more.
His expression seemed neutral, as if he was just waiting and watching to see.
“Well, thank you,” she said, feeling awkward. How could she display thanks? She wasn’t sure. “I was so glad to see it because I was worried I had missed you. I was awake all night because of the storm…” She trailed off. Should she even keep going if he couldn’t understand?
Frowning, she put down the plate of biscuits and pointed to the boat. “The shell.” She tried to make the general shape of it with her hands. “I liked it. Very much.” She made an exaggerated smile and pointed to either corner of her lips.
He laughed at that, rising out of the water some, and it was as beautiful a sound as the first one, but his smile was even better. Warm. Like sunshine. Like he could eternally chase the clouds away.
“I wanted to make you a necklace,” she said, pointing to herself and then trying to make a gesture as if she were offering something to him. He seemed to understand it and made a gesture like ‘no need.’
“Oh! But I want to,” she said, unsure how to gesture that.
“But it will take some time, so…well, I made biscuits”—she pointed to them—“but then I realized you might not even like biscuits or be able to eat them or they might make you sick or…” She knew her words were coming out at a mile a minute but she couldn’t seem to stop them.
He nodded once toward the plate and she picked it up. “Only if you want to,” she said, leaning it down a bit. “They’re for eating,” she said, making a gesture for food.
Considering how far back he had stayed, she wasn’t sure if he would even want to get close enough to take one, but he did. He swam closer, and looking up at her through those thick lashes coated in crystalline, rainbow-catching water droplets, he took one and bit it without hesitation.
Her heart practically stopped. There was no wheat in the ocean. What if she had just poisoned a mermaid? Would the merpeople and humanity go to war? All she wanted was to make a friend!
She paused her fatalistic swirl of thoughts, reminding herself how some fish liked to eat their stale bread. Maybe this would be the same.
Well, he was chewing thoughtfully and not spitting it out or gagging, so that was a good sign. Then swallowing that first bite, he nodded to her—approvingly? maybe or maybe that was her wishful thinking—before he took the rest of it and stuffed it all into his mouth.
She audibly gasped but just as quickly, the biscuit was gone and he motioned for another one. She nodded, feeling frozen, still stunned he could eat the whole thing in one bite like that. His first bite had been as dainty as a queen. Perhaps he had been worried she had done something to it?
Well, she couldn’t have that. After he took another, she took one herself and bit into it, just to show him they were totally safe. The cynical part of her mind sneered, ‘Yeah, safe for humans at least.’
He ate three more and she prayed to God like she never had before that his mermaid constitution could handle them.
She personally found them delicious. They were slightly different than Rose’s but she wouldn’t say worse. Thank the Lord Rose’s recipe had been easy to follow.
Sharing a meal with a mermaid. How insane. She wondered if Father had ever met one.
“So,” she said, wishing she had made more for he didn’t seem quite done. “What’s your name? What should I call you?”
He gave a wry smile and shook his head as if to say he had no idea what she was saying at all.
Fair enough, but she had no idea how to gesture ‘name’.
Finally she gestured to herself. “Daria,” she said. Then pointing again, she repeated it a few more times until he nodded.
“Daria,” he said. Emotions flooded through her like a dam had broken, filling her with a glowing warmth. Why, even his voice was warm and sweet, like honey over biscuits.
Trying her best to ignore the rush of feelings, she gestured to him.
“Kallias,” he said.
“Kallias,” she repeated. Even his name was beautiful.
He said something else but she couldn’t understand. He smiled understandingly and then nodding to the plate, bowed his head.
“Oh. A thank you?” she said. “You’re more than welcome.” She pointed to where the shell had been, wishing she had it on her so it would be even more obvious, but still, she thought he’d get it. “Thank you.”
He looked to the boat and then seemed to understand. There was a nod.
“Also, thank you for saving me,” she said again. She bowed her head in thanks and then pointed to the ocean before trying to mimic drowning.
He laughed and nodded.
“Will you come back?” she asked, making the same signs she did for sunrise and this spot.
“We could get to know each other.” The words started to rush out again, a problem she had never had before but perhaps that was because there had never been anyone to listen.
“I could learn your language or you mine. And we could become friends.”
He smiled a bit, as if uncomfortable at not knowing what she was saying, but then that smile turned to a comforting, warm one, and looking up at her, he made the same gesture for sunrise and pointed to the spot.
She almost wanted to cry from the joy of it. “And this time I won’t be late.”