24 Black Knigh (1/2)
Her recall of what happened next only formed a linear narrative in retrospect.At the time it was half a mouth full of salty water.Thrashing.Her own hair in her mouth.Bubbles coming out of her nose.Her knee bending in a way that knees are not meant to bend.
The was a large… person [?] in the water beside her. Not the one dragging her backward, another person.With pearl-gray skin and ivory hair.Its round face punctuated by two pure black eyes.
Its small mouth gaped and flapped, emitting a helium-squeaky voice that traveled very clearly through the water.”This is the other one.”
The dragging movement stops and Nelda curled up her own body with the flexibility and viciousness of a cat in a bathtub.
The voice squealed again.”It is not the one. It is the other one.”
Nelda gave zero fucks about this conversation, with seawater up her nose and down her lungs and her body was screaming to try and breath despite the fact she was underwater.
Hooking her fingers, Nelda drove them towards this other person's eyes.It dodged out of the way, releasing her. The persons back had a long fin, a pudgy tail and two strong flukes that struck down through the water as it powered away.
Flailing towards the surface, Nelda found herself only a few feet from where she had been grabbed. HoneyBeard was right by her side beating at the water with a stick.
[I do not deserve this satyr.]
#
They dragged Nelda inside to the parlor, screaming and cursing with pain.Herby gave her some acrid juice that dulled it down again, but Nelda kept grabbing the couch thinking she was floating up when she wasn't moving at all.Her brain felt like it was soaking in coffee but riding a tilt-a-whirl while holding fistfuls of sparklers.
[Bestairy entry #8: mermaids.Aaah don' like 'em. Is' prbly mut-yoo-all.]
”Oi, what'd you give me. It'll kill me quicker than those beluga bitches.Fuck, whoooo! Is the room spinning? Do I still have legs a-coz I cain't feel 'em'”
BugleHead leaned over her. ”I'll have what she's having.”
HoneyBeard replied from further away: ”You've already got a bad case of it.”
Then Nelda started to feel really tired.SmithGuid was leaning over her now.
”You look like an animated Disney hero,” she slurred.”Or a super-hero, Cat-birb-man America.” She reached out and patted the top of his beak.”Good kitty. Angry Brenda hadz a cat. S-fink-sss.”
Her phone wallpaper was the cats.The dim memory of their names was soaked out of her neurons and drifted into her consciousness.”Phix.”
[Phix.]
[Who calls a cat a euphemism for neutering?]
She started to giggle.
The was a sharp pain in her knee. Nelda sat straight upright and slapped Herby on the side of the head.They stared at each other for a moment.
”Sorry,” said Nelda.”But in my defense that was a reflex, your medicine has knocked out what little self-control I have, and you didn't warn me you were going to do that.”
Herby passed her another goblet of juice.
”And another thing.” Nelda shook a finger at SmithGuild.”I thought…” [What did I think?] She downed the second dose.”Oh yeah. I thought the kipper queens had shum property, phofishy… proPHECY. That's the one.Why'did they fusk wit' me!”