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“It’s been a long time since you’ve shown your face around her,” Rocksanne Axswell muses as she readies her battle ax. The hilt is wrapped in shimmery, holographic, mermaid-scale leather; that should be enough of a threat to keep Swimantha away, but it obviously isn’t. Rocksanne’s opponent stands across from her on the pier.
Stands.
Since that last time she saw Swimantha, the mermaid has split her once-beautiful, rainbow-toned tail in two. The surgical scars are a bright, angry pink all the way up the inside of her forcibly formed ‘legs’. A bold move- it affords mermaids a lot more agility on land, but it comes at the price of a lifetime of pain. “I know you think you can beat me, but you can’t. You’re still just a fish.”
“It doesn’t matter what I am,” Swimantha says, aiming a cutlass towards Rocksanne. “You killed my sister, I’m taking you down.”
Rocksanne doesn’t really want this. They used to be friends, way back when. She used to look for the glint of Swimantha’s scales in the water and get on all fours at the very edge of the pier. She used to trade baubles for pearls. They held hands, separate worlds but still appreciative of each other. And, importantly, Rocksanne absolutely did
not
kill Swimantha’s sister, despite the incriminating bit of leather on her ax.
Swimantha starts running at her, but then twists suddenly to the side and dives into the water. Rocksanne’s grip tightens. It’s like waiting for a shark to surface. Swimantha manages to catch her off guard- she shoots up out of the water right to Rocksanne’s side and slices down her cheek. It’s deep, the saltwater stings, and the cut lops one of thea braids in her beard clean off. Rocksanne steps back and hisses with pain. She grits her teeth.
It isn’t what she wants, not at all, but she can’t just let Swimantha slice her to bits. Rocksanne’s a merc, fighting is what she’s built for. Swimantha’s a beautiful girl that should’ve been spending her days eating clams and winking at sailors. When Swimantha comes at her again, Rocksanne ducks low and buries the head of her ax into the exposed scars of Swimantha’s inner thigh. It sounds awful, like gutting a fish but ten times as loud. When she pulls her weapon out, the mermaid goes down, screaming like an animal, and her cutlass falls over the edge of the pier into the water.
Rocksanne tries to keep a stony expression, but she can’t keep it up. She drops down to her knees beside Swimantha and tries to get a look at the wound. Swimantha tries to push her way. “Don’t
pity
me! Kill me! You won again, just end it,” she demands. Her hands tremble from the pain. Rocksanne shakes her head, then grabs Swimantha’s wrists in one hand so she can focus on figuring out the extent of the damage.
The scar is splitting away from the wound itself. It’s too fresh, not healed enough. Swimantha was always impatient. “This’ll hurt,” Rocksanne warns before pushing open the wound with a thumb. Swimantha screams and Rocksanne does her best to ignore it. The ax tore through fat and muscle and just barely sliced into the vestigial leg-bones Swimantha’s been using to walk around. She needs stitches, at the very least.
“Why are you doing this? Do you just get off on humiliating me?”
Rocksanne turns her attention away from Swimantha’s leg and up to her face. She’s on the verge of tears, red-faced with frustration. It’s time for Rocksanne to tell the truth.
“I care about you.”
“You killed my sister!”
“I didn’t kill your sister!” Swimantha’s eyes go to Rocksanne’s ax. “I… I bought some the leather. I thought if I did it’d scare you away. I didn’t…” She pauses and sighs. “I didn’t mean to bring poachers with me. They followed me. I was ashamed, I felt so stupid for not noticing them. It was my fault, and I thought if you were scared of me, if you avoided me… Then you’d be safe.”
Swimantha looks away. “Liar.”
“I’m not lying, Swimantha.”
“Why should I believe you?”
Rocksanne purses her lips. She puts a hand under her beard and grabs the necklace she always keeps tucked into her shirt. It’s an oddly shaped pearl, carefully tied up with a dark blue thread. It’s the last pearl Swimantha gave her before Rocksanne’s stupidity got her sister killed
“Rocksie,” Swimantha whispers, shocked.
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me what really happened? I-... I’ve spent so long hating you.”
“I don’t know. I just… Got it in my head it was the best way. And maybe… I thought I deserved to be hated.” Rocksanne stands, then carefully, gently lifts up Swimantha. “Listen, I know it’s a lot to ask, but I need you to trust me. I know a doctor that’ll stitch you up, probably give you something for those big scars, too.”
Swimantha holds onto Rocksanne’s neck and buries her face in what’s left of her curly black beard. “I… I’ll trust you,” she says. “I missed you, Rocksie.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry. I’ll make sure to keep you by my side from now on. That way I can protect you myself.”
Swimantha presses a light kiss to Rocksanne’s cheek. Despite the circumstances, Rocksanne blushes like a teenager.