The Pirate and the Mermaid
Chapter 5 – Escaping the Wall
The shouts up above only increased in volume and alarm after Erma cut the red-haired woman free from her bindings. The empty loop of rope that had been around the woman’s waist dripped as it was pulled up. Some of the people on top of the strange floating wall were very thin and seemed to have large holes going all the way through their pale white skin.
Wait, she thought, is that even skin?
Her attention was pulled from the strange people on top of the wall, and her face flushed as she remembered that she was holding hands with a girl under the moonlight. The woman’s hand was warm against hers but very rough and calloused.
Clearly, Erma thought darkly, they were forcing her to do hard labor against her will. The poor thing has obviously just managed to find a way to escape when those evil wall people wrapped her in that horrible rough rope. How could anyone do something so horrible?
She glanced back at the woman who seemed to be doing her best to keep up with Erma’s slow pace by wildly flailing her other three limbs. Erma couldn’t help but think about how odd she looked, with no tail or fins. She had thought the woman’s ears might be her fins with how long they were, but they didn’t seem to be moving in the water, so clearly they weren’t.
Over time the woman’s movements became slower and she seemed to be struggling even more. Erma slowed so much that only the momentum they had built up was causing them to move at all. She was about to ask the woman what was wrong but she was staring up towards the surface.
Is she worried about her captors catching her, Erma wondered to herself.
The woman’s eyes widened in panic, which caused Erma to look around instinctively as she wondered what was going on. The woman frantically tapped against Erma’s arm and pointed towards her throat. Was she hungry?
“There’s plenty of food at the village, don’t worry, “ She said, and gestured down towards the village.
This seems to be a strange time to be worried about food, Erma Thought, maybe her species has a really fast metabolism?
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The woman only shook her head, but as she did so a small cloud of bubbles escaped her nose. Erma noticed that behind them was a long trail of similar bubbles. The woman only grew increasingly panicked, and for every flailing movement, more of the bubbles escaped her mouth, and nose.
The woman violently pulled her hand out of Erma’s and started trying to swim back to the surface, making concerning noises of distress, as she went. She hadn’t gone very far when she turned toward Erma, almost seeming to silently beg for help.
Erma’s mind raced as the red-haired woman grasped at her throat, and violently gestured towards the surface. There was definitely something wrong with this woman she had rescued, but what should she do? Then she remembered what the doctor had said about the man her cousin had brought home. Namely that it had seemed that he’d died of asphyxiation. Everyone had thought it was strange, no one else seemed to have trouble breathing.
Erma remembered the woman being able to breathe above the surface with no issue, was that the problem? Had she been holding her breath this whole time? Could this woman not breathe below the surface? She desperately tried to think of something, anything, that she could do to help. The last thing that she wanted was to have this poor woman repeat the fate of the man her cousin brought home.
Erma remembered that there were some creatures in the ocean that weren’t able to breathe underwater, maybe she was like those. Wasn’t there that technique where you could breathe for someone else? Erma’s face burned at the thought of kissing this woman, especially without asking permission, but what other choice was there? Erma pressed her lips firmly against the woman’s and pushed the air from her lungs into the woman’s mouth.
She was trying to help her breathe but she didn’t know if this would work. Maybe the woman’s species breathed differently than Erma did. There was just too much that Erma didn’t know, and she couldn’t even ask! The woman swallowed and then inhaled but her body was wracked with a coughing fit, causing the woman to swallow more water. Tears filled Erma’s eyes, as she tried to think of what else she could possibly do.
The woman could breathe on the surface, Erma thought, so that’s where I’ll have to take her.
Panic crossed the other woman’s face as she screamed in pain. Erma, her mind finally made up, grabbed the woman around the waist and started dragging her quickly towards the surface. She was nearly to the surface when the woman’s body went limp.
Despite how much she wanted to bring this woman to safety, she didn’t seem to be able to breathe. Erma knew she couldn’t bring her back to the wall people, they couldn’t be trusted. So she ultimately decided to bring her to the nearby island. She should be able to breathe there. Maybe once the woman had regained consciousness, she could escape from the wall people in the strange plants on the land there.
Erma desperately hoped this was the right course of action. They had finally managed to reach the surface and Erma tried her best to keep the woman’s head above the water. She couldn’t tell if the woman was breathing yet. She fought to keep from stopping and sobbing, knowing that every second counted for the woman on her back.
After what seemed like an eternity, they made it to the shallows of the island. Erma focused on getting the woman to the shore. Maybe once the woman was safely out of the water, she would start breathing again?
Rocks scraping her belly and her eyes blurred with tears, Erma dragged the woman onto the rocky shore of the island, hoping that she had made it before the red-haired woman had died.