"Talk?" Kiandra asked, sitting up as he glanced at Meara.
'She looks worried about something!'
"Uhm, is it about me going home?" he wondered.
"Before I answer that question." She said, still troubled over Ashling's death "I hope that you can sympathize with our situation. Do you understand what you saw at the ceremony?"
"Not exactly." he answered.
"The wounds that Ashling suffered would have been healed instantaneously by the Pearl of Lir. It is the pearl that keeps us immortal! We could be harpooned, bashed against the rocks, or even dried out on land. Yet, with the pearl, we cheat death. But the race of Adam had discovered our immortality and had stolen it away from us, driving us away from their shores."
"So that is why you so desperately want the pearl?" Kiandra asked.
"No, well not exactly. Not anymore." she answered. "I am a producer; I create the Egg to house the Spirit inside. But it is the Breeder that passes on her genetic code that gives the Merrow her body. If we were to infuse the pearl into your own body, it would pass on to the Egg...future Merrows would be reborn with a pearl of their own."
"I see." he pondered "That would save your species."
"Indeed."
"May I ask a question of my own?" Kiandra then asked Meara who nodded "Why did Balor go only after the Breeders and the eggs? It did not even try to target the other Merrows! Not even Caelan, when she ran away. It seemed that they only went after Ashling, the Egg and I."
"Your observation is keen, Kiandra." Meara noted "The Balor is an ancient monster created by a foul race of rogue deities called the Formorian's. They created that demon to devour the Tuatha de Danann's light and to enslave the race of Adam."
"The reason why the Balor only went after you, Ashling, and the Egg was because it feeds on the Merrow eggs when it is hungry, and devours the pearls for its own continued lifeforce. Niamh believes that Balor was created by the Formorian's to maintain our numbers. Having a pearl that offers immortality, and our hyper-reproductive abilities...our species could easily over populate the world like your own species has done."
"Natural selection." Kiandra commented, seeing the cruelty in it all.
"Normally, the Balor had never killed Merrows before. Well, unless we possessed a pearl that wasn't already merged into our bodies. And even then, the Balor knew better then to attack our settlement as we could easily kill it with our Fae magic."
"But something in the last century has changed. And for some unknown reason, the Balor has begun eating our Eggs constantly, and killing Merrows who try to protect them. And now with no Breeders to carry on our legacy...we are the last generation. In this entire world, all the Merrows that you saw at the ceremony, are the last Merrows in this realm. Barely even a hundred when we once commanded millions! Once being the largest and most powerful Kingdom in all of Tír fo Thuinn...now, we are in ruin."
"My grandfather once told me that Merrows had over-populated the western ocean of Ireland..." Kiandra offering his side of the story "...and it wasn't uncommon to see and hear tales of Merrows. But that all seemed to have suddenly ceased in the 1800s, about 250 years ago."
"That was about the same time when Queen Muireann had begun seeking for other means of organizing breeding with the other species as surrogate parents and forbid travel to your world. But there has never been any success in turning the tide." she remarked "Well, until you appeared."
She knelt down before Kiandra as she pled with him; she knew that she was about to ask the impossible. But for the future of her people, she needed to at least try.
"For my species survival, I please ask of you to stay here in Tír fo Thuinn for a little longer!" Kiandra was about to disagree, but Meara stopped him "Please hear me out, Kiandra Muirgen! We are well aware that your breeding methods are greatly different from our own. But as a Merrow, there is hope that you can adapt and evolve! Queen Muireann is hoping that you will at least try to raise our children."
"We cannot say if it will succeed or fail, but if we do not try, we all are facing extinction!" she cried "Niamh believes that you were summoned by the Water Deity, brough here to save us and help us. Please, I beg of you, save us!"
"Are you actually begging me..." Kiandra asked Meara, still alarmed of what she was asking him "...to stay here forever? To give up on my own world for yours? You abandon mortal self for a people that I cannot even show my face to?"
"Yes." she answered. "I will try to make your life as happy as possible while you are living here. I will do what I can to show you that life here in Murias can be fulfilling. And one day, if you can secure my species survival, I will dedicate my life to finding a way to send you back home."
"With no means of traveling back home on my own accord. And marked by a sexual fiend that caused me to transform into a Merrow every time that I try to love anyone else but her...I really am left with no choice in the matter." He sighed, slowly nodded in agreement "I guess all I can say is yes, for the time being."
"Hmm...?" she pondered 'Somehow, that was far easier than I had expected...what is he planning?'
'But, can I honestly help them?' Kiandra felt regret fill his heart once more 'She even went as far as to denigrate herself in asking me to father an entire race of merfolk! What will she think when she finds out that I already killed one of their beloved children!?'
'Can a disgusting human like me, even hatch an Egg!?' he asked himself 'Even Ashling's Egg did not want me...knowing of what I have done to that first Egg! Maybe it would be best if I just exiled myself and let that Balor demon do the justice...' he walked towards the deep forest as Meara watched him hobbling.
"What are you doing?" she called out to him.
"Bathroom break." Kiandra lied.
"Okay, just please be careful! This forest can be unforgiving!" she told him as she then recalled, getting up quickly to warn him "Kiandra! Watch out over there, there is a dried up..."
"Aaah!" Meara heard Kiandra scream with a loud 'splat' sound that followed.
"...lake!" She ran over to the location where she had expected to find him. And sure enough, Kiandra was lying in a deep pool of warm sticky mud. 'Oh dear! He is going to be unruly until sunset!'
"Kikiki!" Kiandra seemed to giggle like a Merrow, wadding in the muck. Instead of throwing a fit, he was playing in it.
"Kiandra Muirgen!" cried out Meara "Are you okay!? Stay right there, I am coming in to get you!"
"Kikiki!" Kiandra continued to play. He looked up at Meara, smiling as he was dripping with mud "This is amazing! It feels so warm and soft!"
"I am confused." Meara scratched her head as this wasn't what she had expected.
"You look surprised!" He smiled "My parents strictly forbid me from ever playing in mud! They said that only peasants wallowed in a holler along with the pigs. I've always wanted to experience this! Do you...uhm also want to try?" he asked the young mermaid."
"Uhm..." as she knelt down, touching the mud with her fingers. "There is something about this mud that you should be well aware of, Kiandra."
"I already know!" he grinned, "It is great for exfoliating!"
"Uhm, that isn't it." she replied as she could see that the mud's unique properties were already taking effect.
"You'll never get in like that!" Kiandra giggled, grabbing Meara and pulling her into the muck. She looked surprised as she laid there beside Kiandra as he just grinned "Well?" he asked, curious.
"This isn't right!" she said, turning and leaving the muddy mess at once before the power of the mud could absorb into her skin. "You should get out before you end up regretting it!"
"I don't understand you?" Kiandra spoke, confused.
"No, you do not." she told him "Bathing with a Breeder is strictly forbidden! Now get out before your wound gets infected!"
***
Kiandra laid in the warm mid-morning sun, warming up after being bathed by Meara with cold water from the ocean. He laid in the warm grass as his senses were dulled with bliss. Unknown to him at the time, the magical properties of the mud had already cast their spell over him. Meara was purposely biting her tongue as she wasn't ready for another emotional outburst from him.
"That was strangely refreshing!" he grinned, watching the shimmering water of the ocean.
Once more, that feeling had entered his heart, as if the ocean was calling to him. The last time that he felt it was when he was wearing Meara's cohuleen druith. But this time, he wore nothing to cast the spell. He was sensing the deep longing for the ocean all on his own.
'Is it because I am now a Merrow?' words that seemed disingenuous as he only became a Merrow when he thinks of anyone else but Caelan. And yet, there were a few times that he thought that he should have changed into a Merrow when he was too close to Meara, but he did not.
He touched his belly and looked down at the bluish-pink Breeder mark that was scarred into his flesh. Even if he did manage to leave Tír fo Thuinn, he would still have to bear this mark and the scar that was placed upon him by Caelan. He'd still be cursed to transform into a Merrow anytime he became romantic for anyone but Caelan.
"For a finicky young man, you certainly do have some strange interests!" Meara said, washing her soiled cohuleen druith, scrubbing out the mud. "After this is clean and dried, you can wear it again."
"But isn't it yours? Don't you want it back?" he asked her "I thought all Merrows needed their cohuleen druith to return back to the ocean?"
"That is true." she answered. "But its magic is your only shield...so please wear it!"
"And my shir—" he asked as he heard a ripping sound as Meara had torn it in half, removing a piece from the human world to help him acclimate to being only a Merrow. "My shirt!" he cried out, stunned. "You literally took the shirt right off of my back! Now I am dirt poor!" he collapsed in the grass, looking at the tattered cloth.
"I am deeply sorry." she lied, holding the two pieces "But maybe it is time that you start dressing like a Merrow to blend in. Human clothes make you stand out."
"But my clothing was the only thing that I have left from the human world!" he whined. She produces a silky white dress lined with pearls for him to wear. "Were you just waiting to dress me up like a girl?!" he demanded, not accepted it.
"Well, with you long hair and feminine-like charm, I thought that it was appropriate." She smirked, toying with him. Kiandra reached back and sure enough, his hair had seemed to have grown almost a foot and a half long. He now understood where all that 'yanking' sensation came from when Meara was washing him.
"What happened to me!?" he cried out, holding the hair in his hands while looking at it.
"I did warn you about the effects of Fae mud...it is great for cleansing the skin and regrowing the hair...but a pain to keep it well trimmed!" She took out her knife and sliced off the excessive growth, holding about a foot's length of hair in her hands.
"Hey!" Kiandra cried out "You could have hurt me with that thing!" He and Meara watched as the hair that she had severed had then turned into blue Merrow Lights and disappeared in the air.
"You see, magic can be either a blessing or a curse, all depending on the person enchanted. And if you cut off any length of the hair, like this portion that I once held..." Kiandra's hair regrew quickly, but now almost 3.5 feet in length compared to the original 1.5 feet "...the length doubles."
"Meara!" he cried out, his long hair now well past his thighs. Instead of being his typical shade of earthly brown, the hair had turned a silvery platinum in color. It looked white in the sunlight, and a steely blue in the twilight.
"So pretty!" Meara swooned.
"If you knew that this would happen, then why did you do it nevertheless! Why didn't you just tell me not to cut it!?" Kiandra cried out, messing with the hair, trying to keep it out of his eyes.
"Would you have listened if I had told you?" she asked him. He could not disagree with her; it would have been likely that he would have cut it twice in a fit of rage and fear.
"What am I going to do with all this hair!?" he asked, looking at his reflection in the water "I now look like a girl!"
"That is the other side effect of the mud." Kiandra commented. "It increases a person's natural beauty. But do not worry too much about it; in about six months when the lake refills, you will be able to cut your hair once again." she giggled at his misery.
He kept pushing it back, and the slight breeze pushed it back into his face.
"You know, hair ties and cords can help with that. Let me help you tie it up." she neatly parted his hair in three sections. The longest strands went to the back, tied off near the scalp with a hair tie made of course vine cord. She then braded the other two locks of hair, and weaved sun-bleached cords through them to keep them in place.
"There." She guided him back to the water so that he could look at his reflection. She had draped the long ponytail of hair over his shoulder and purposely left his bangs free to insensate his feminine looks. The two shorter weaved locks of hair hung just behind his ears.
He stared at his new appearance in awe.
"I hardly recognize myself." he remarked. His appearance, while standing beside Meara; he looked like a Merrow in human form.
"Arms up." she instructed as she draped the long white dress over his head. It flowed down to the ground and shimmered in the sunlight. The decorations of oceanic pearls caught the sunlight and flickered in iridescent colors. She then draped the cohuleen druith over his shoulders as he stared at what he had become.
'I look like one of them now.' he thought. He slowly turned to Meara as he suddenly grabbed her hand, holding it, and studying it.
"Th—thank you." he murmured "For putting up with my rude behavior and taking care of me."
"I understand your feelings." she told him, taking back her hand from his hand "The pearl has showed me much of the world that has felt all of us behind in the past. It has also shown me that you do not have much trust in anyone. I want to change all of that for you."
"I must admit, you certainly do know how to be patient. And you have the tolerance of a saint!" he smiled, walking a few yards away from her "But I..." he bowed his head in shame "...I am not a good person. I am not a saint, or a savor. My soul is corrupted by my past. I have never taken responsibility for anything in my life..." he turned, looking at Meara as if he could not lie to her anymore "...the Egg! It isn't..." a sudden flicker of light shimmered though the air. Kiandra could feel its presence as a silver dart just flew past his face as his attacker wasn't far away.